“I have recently written to the Minister for Education asking him to set out a clear timetable for the provision of much needed schools to serve the Castleknock-Carpenterstown area. Now that the property developers have gotten their way on the re-zoning of Kellystown, it’s up to the Government to ensure that they fulfil their end of the bargain. The sites for the secondary and two post-primary schools must be acquired without further delay.

“I understand that construction of one of the primary schools is already underway. One would assume that this will be the permanent accommodation for Scoil Choilm, although this has yet to be confirmed. There is provision for a second primary school in the Kellystown area. I have asked the Minister for Education to ring-fence this school for the accommodation of Carpenterstown Educate Together. His Department recently refused to sanction this school, and turned down their appeal, citing lack of school buildings.

“I propose that the primary school under construction be used to house both primary schools for their initial years until Carpenterstown Educate Together can move into its new premises up the road. The Carpenterstown Educate Together Start-up Group represents parents of some 200 children. Their wishes and aspirations for their children cannot go on being ignored.

“Many local parents understandably supported the re-zoning of Kellystown on the basis of promises that a post-primary school would open to accommodate their children from September 2009 onwards. As people have correctly pointed out, there are currently enough pupils at 3rd, 4th and 5th class level in the area to justify the building of this school. There is no time to be lost if a post-primary school is to be constructed in time to open its doors in September 2009.”

“The Government have taken the approach that there is not and never was a schools’ crisis in Dublin 15. This is manifestly not the case. In Castleknock and Carpenterstown alone, we have enough children currently in primary school to justify the immediate construction of a 1,000 pupil school. The shortage of secondary school places is set to become chronic from 2009 onwards if no action is taken.

“We also have groups of parents, like the Carpenterstown Educate Together Start-up Group, who are working very hard to set up a much needed primary school for the area, but they are not getting any support or recognition from the Government. Parents desparately want an appropriate education for their children. This right is guaranteed to them in the Irish Constitution, yet they are finding that they are often working against rather than with the Government to ensure their children can get the education they deserve.”

Deupty Joan Burton has welcomed the announcement that the brand new 16 classroom school in Casteaheany, Dublin 15, has been handed over to Educate Together, the patron body of the school, 10 weeks ahead of schedule.

“I’m delighted to hear that after such a long wait for a permanent home, Castaheany Educate Together is now ready for use. I would like to congratulate and extend my best wishes to all the parents, teachers, and members of the Board of Management who have worked tirelessly over the past six or seven years to deliver this school.

“Dublin 15 has one of the fastest growing populations of any area in Europe. Past planning deficiencies have often led to tens of thousands of houses being built without any thought given to putting the necessary schools and community facilities in place. In the case of Castaheany Educate Together, it’s been a long wait but I’m sure it will be well worth it. We can now look forward to generations of young children getting a quality primary education in their local area.”

“As energy-efficiency becomes ever more important, in the face of challenges posed by global warming, I’m delighted to see that new Dublin 15 schools are playing their part with Castaheany Educate Together designed with the environment and minimising heating costs firmly in mind”.

Deputy Joan Burton has tabled a series of parliamentary questions to the new Minister for Education, Batt O’Keefe TD, relating to Dublin 15 school sites, and particularly the proposed school sites at Kellystown. Minister O’Keefe has given a series of evasive replies, but, notably, indicates that his Department has directed Fingal County Council that “a reserved site at Annfield, Diswellstown, Dublin 15 should be acquired using their statutory powers if necessary.”

“We have a new Minister, but the same old evasive approach. We have a serious need for school sites in Dublin 15, but the new Minister doesn’t seem to have any answers. He won’t give any indication as to the stage of development or the legal status of the site for Scoil Choilm. He won’t even say where it is located, when it is clear for all to see that site preparation has already commenced.”, Joan commented.

Joan’s questions:

Uimhir:344

Ceist Pharlaiminte

Chun an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíoctha
To the Minister for Education and Science

To ask the Minister for Education and Science if his Department has ever sought
to acquire school sites either directly, through the local authority or through
the Office of Public Works using compulsory acquisition powers or other
statutory powers; if they have ever informed landowners or developers that if
they were unwilling to sell necessary or reserved sites to his Department or
its agents that such statutory powers would or could be utilised to acquire the
land; the details of any instances where such communications have taken place
over the past five years with respect to the acquisition of school sites in
Dublin 15; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Joan Burton.

* For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 4th June, 2008.
Reference Number: 22117/08

Freagra

Minister for Education and Science (Batt O’Keeffe, T.D.)

In general, the Office of Public Works (OPW) procures sites on behalf of my
Department. In certain circumstances my Department liaises directly with
Landowners on the acquisition of sites. More recently, my Department has begun
interacting directly with several local authorities in relation to acquiring
sites, particularly in rapidly developing areas.

My Department in communications, in April 2007 with Fingal County Council
indicated that a reserved site at Annfield, Diswellstown, Dublin 15 should be
acquired using their statutory powers if necessary. The question of the use of
Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) is a matter for the relevant Local Authority in
the first instance.

Uimhir:345, 347

Ceist Pharlaiminte

Chun an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíoctha
To the Minister for Education and Science

To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of sites for schools
and the name and location of same in the Dublin 15 area where the initial
development of the site was commenced by his Department by having a licensing
agreement with the landowner or licence to build on the site in advance of the
expected completion of purchase of the land; and if he will make a statement on
the matter.
– Joan Burton.

To ask the Minister for Education and Science if his Department has sought, or
is seeking to establish, any licensing agreement in respect of land to be
acquired or used as a school site, whether by rent, lease, purchase or other
means; the location of such sites; when such agreements were entered into or
are expected to be entered into; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
-Joan Burton.

* For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 4th June, 2008.
Reference Number: 22118/08, 22120/08

Freagra

Minister for Education and Science (Batt O’Keeffe, T.D.)

I propose to take questions 345 and 347 together.

In certain circumstances, particularly in rapidly developing areas where the
provision of additional school places are required urgently, my Department may
request a landowner to enter into a Building Licence Agreement to allow for the
construction of a school pending the finalisation of the conveyancing process.

To date, in respect of 2008, my Department has entered into one such
arrangement for a school in the Dublin 15 region. Due however to the
commercial sensitivities attached to site acquisitions it would not be
appropriate for me to expand further on the specifics of the site location at
the present time.

Uimhir:346

Ceist Pharlaiminte

Chun an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíoctha
To the Minister for Education and Science

To ask the Minister for Education and Science when, in respect of the proposed
primary school at Annfield/Kellystown in Dublin 15, where site works are under
way, planning permission for the school site was obtained; the details of the
contractual arrangement between his Department or its agents with the relevant
landowner or landowners; the persons who are the principal contractees to this
agreement; when according to this contractual agreement, the purchase of the
land will be completed; the actual cost of the use of the land in advance of
the purchase; the estimated cost, or contractually agreed cost, of purchasing
the land; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Joan Burton.

* For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 4th June, 2008.
Reference Number: 22119/08

Freagra

Minister for Education and Science (Batt O’Keeffe, T.D.)

As the Deputy may be aware, the Department is progressing the acquisitioin of a
number of sites under the Fingal School Model Agreement.

The Fingal School Model is an agreement reached with Fingal County Council and
is a partnership approach to fast-track the delivery of schools and community
facilities throughout the Fingal Area. The intention is that the agreed
approach will match the rapid pace of housing development in the area with the
delivery of schools while at the same time providing important facilities for
community use.

A site has been identified in Porterstown/Kellystown for the delivery of phase
one of the
primary provision to be made for the area and the Department intends to
relocate an
exisiting school in temporary accommodation to the new school 16 classroom
school building in Porterstown for September 2008 to meet the demand for school
places.

A number of sites being acquired under the Fingal School Model are
at varying stages of acquisition including this site and, as the
Deputy will appreciate, due to commercial sensitivities relating to site
acquisition, I am not in a position
to comment further at this time.

Speaking in the Dáil today, Deputy Joan Burton highlighted the imminent consequences of the Government’s broken promises on class sizes. St. Francis Xavier School in Roselawn is threatened with the loss of up to two teachers from next September due to Government cut-backs and red-tape.

“Just two weeks ago the ESRI published a report that the future our economic wellbeing will depend more than anything else on our investment in education, so that we become a knowledge economy. In the future, rather than selling our manual labour, we will actually be selling our brain power.

“It is extraordinary that the Minister for Education and a FF/Green Government should be stymieing children around the country from enjoying a quality learning environment. Children are entitled to learn in classes of reasonable size, and in classrooms that are orderly, unstressed and un-crowded.

“Because FF have reneged on their promise to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio to 27 pupils to 1 teacher in each class, next September 28 schools right around the country will loose one or more teachers.

“I want to speak about two schools on this list, one urban and one rural:

“St. Francis Xavier School in Roselawn, Castleknock, in Dublin 15 is threatened with the loss of one to two teachers next September. This school is both successful and popular. More than 25% of the pupils are international students, many with specific English language coaching requirements.

“In the Junior School, from which the Senior School pupils are recruited, the proportion of international students is even higher. This school is now faced with the loss of two teachers,. Had the Minister for Education and Fianna Fáil in Government honoured their promises to cut class sizes, they would not be loosing staff.

“Because of the number of international students, there are a number of additional posts in the school, particularly in relation to language and resource teaching. The school is one hour short of the 22 hours required for a learning resource teacher.

“But bureaucratic bungling and red tape between the HSE and the Department of Education means the school cannot get the approved extra hour.

“This problem is not exclusive to our cities. Scoil Naomh Pádraig in Ballymurphy in Co. Carlow is a rural school which expects to take in 11 extra pupils next September. It too is facing the loss of its third teacher because of the Minister’s u-turn on class sizes.

“Both of these schools expect a significant expansion in pupil intake for next September, yet they will be penalised with respect to last September’s figures. This is no way to plan the educational future of our future of our children.

These are just two of the 28 schools with similar stories. This is no way to plan schooling in urban areas. This is no way to support rural schools.”

Speaking at a well attended meeting in St. Brigid’s Community Centre last night Eamon Gilmore stressed the need to step up investment in education to ensure that every child has the opportunity of reaching their full potential and to ensure that the foundations of a 21st century knowledge economy are well laid.

“Education is the most important investment that we, as a nation, can ever make. Universal education is the key which unlocks the potential of every child, and which harnesses the creativity of society as a whole. Universal education underpins our democracy, civilises our society, and fuels our economy.

This is why Labour has always believed that education must be free. But it is also why education will never be cheap.

We in Ireland like to tell ourselves that we have the best education system in the world. Unfortunately, this oft-repeated claim does not stand up to careful scrutiny.

To be fair, the Irish education system has achieved some significant success on the back of relatively low levels of public funding. For this we owe no small thanks to generations of teachers who made the best of relatively few resources.

Currently Ireland spends only 4.7 per cent of our GDP on education, compared to an OECD average of 6 per cent. This is despite the relative youth of our population. But behind the statistics are facts which will be familiar to many parents and teaching professionals.

The average primary school receives only half of its day-to-day running costs from the State, leaving parents, teachers and principals to make up the rest through fundraising and ‘voluntary’ donations.

One in four children is taught in a class of thirty or more.

The backlog in the school building programme means that pre-fabs eat up the school yard, and that some schools are waiting a decade or more for safe, sanitary buildings or, like Castleknock Community College, a gym hall.

New schools in fast-growing communities are overcrowded even before they open, leaving them constantly struggling to catch up in space and funding.

Early school leaving has stagnated at roughly 18 per cent since the early nineties. That means that around 10,000 of the children sitting their Junior Cert this year will not make it to the Leaving Certificate.

These are just some examples of where a lack of resources, and a lack of infrastructure, are causing our education system to show the strain.

However, there are twin challenges facing our education system today, which lend a greater urgency to the question of investment in education.

The first is our growing population. This year, the Minister for Education blamed the increase in the primary school population for the government’s abandonment of their promises to cut class sizes and build long-awaited school extensions.

Currently there are 450,000 primary school pupils in our system. Over the next decade, that figure is set to increase by 100,000. By 2025, there will be 650,000. Paying for these children’s education should not be a zero-sum game. We need to progressively improve the quality of education for all children, not just invest enough to barely keep pace with change.

Secondly, with the advent of the global skills race, our education system is expected to become an increasingly important arm of industrial policy. However, it is one thing to talk about the need to invest in the knowledge that creates a knowledge economy. It is another to do it in a meaningful and sustainable way.

There has been significant investment in recent years in science, technology and R&D in industry and in universities. While this is essential, it is not the only pillar of a knowledge economy. Knowledge is built up brick by brick. Our children need to be able to understand and perform in maths in classrooms today if they are to be the science graduates of tomorrow.

This is why it is important to unbuckle the rhetoric of investment in the knowledge economy from the reality. Investment in third and fourth level education, without a similar focus on primary and second level, is like carefully crafting a ladder that only has rungs at the top.

The consequences are already becoming clear: last year only 6,710 Leaving Certificate students gained a C3 or above in Honours Maths. In other words, less than 15 per cent of the class of 2007 are eligible for entry to science, medical, finance or engineering-related degree courses. Hardly a vast pool from which to draw the scientists, engineers and researchers on whom our economic future so depends.

None of what I have outlined here is a secret. It does not take a rocket scientist to conclude that our education system is being asked to do more, and for a bigger population; or that this will cost money.

Indeed, few will disagree that Ireland needs a 21st century education system to meet the demands of a 21st century economy. There is a remarkable consensus around Ireland’s need for a knowledge economy. What is lacking is a realistic commitment to paying for it.

Nor do we have the luxury of time. A highly-skilled population is the oil of the 21st century economy, and everyone is looking to strike it lucky. While we are running to stay still in education investment, others will not hesitate to overtake us.

This is one compelling reason why we need to significantly increase investment in education now. But there are other reasons in almost every community in the country: schools badly in need of refurbishment, safe play areas, extra classrooms and new science labs.

Those who say – and who have said – that in these tougher economic times there is no more money in the coffers for education, are suffering from a worrying lack of vision. Far from being a threat to economic growth, investment in education is what drives it.

The bottom line is that how much of the common purse we spend on education is a political choice. Ireland is now an affluent country. We can make our own decisions about what matters to us. Does education matter enough to be a higher priority in public spending? I believe that it does, and it must.

It is clear that current levels of spending are not delivering the transformation our education system needs. Current spending is not even delivering such basics as bricks and mortar, or, at primary level, enough to cover utility bills for the year.

As my party colleague, Ruairi Quinn, argued recently, we need a political consensus on what share of national wealth we want to invest in education. Without a clear vision of what we want our education system to achieve, the now-established pattern of investment which races to catch up with change, rather than initiating it, will continue.

One of the first priorities in education investment must be an intensive three-year programme to upgrade the physical infrastructure of our primary and secondary schools.

Not only is this a matter of urgency for the schools and communities which need extensions and new buildings now, it would also anticipate future demand. We know how many children will need a primary and secondary school over the next ten years or so. When they seek their right to an education, it must not prompt the kind of crisis we have seen over the past couple of years.

A comprehensive school building programme has the added benefit of providing valuable employment in the construction industry, at a time when it is badly needed.

Despite the recent, and expected, downturn in the economy, Ireland has the capacity to make a quantum leap in education investment. It is a question of priorities.

Those countries famous for their progressive approach to education, and particularly early childhood and primary education, did not produce such fine systems by chance. They did not build schools from extra money they happened to have lying around. They made a choice. They decided what mattered to them.

Ireland is dealing with the legacy of years of under-investment in education. Our economy may have leap-frogged into the digital age, but our education system has been slow to follow.

We need to change the way we look at spending on education. Education spending is not a drain on the economy: it is an investment that pays for itself many times over in the quality of our society, and in jobs. It is not something which can be bartered and traded like other, competing claims on the national purse.

Increasing the share of national wealth which we spend on education is an investment that we will all reap the benefits of. It is an investment in ourselves, and in our children’s future.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday on the debate on the OECD’s report on Irish public service reform, “Towards an Integrated Public Service”, Deputy Joan Burton highlighted the many strong points of our public service, but argued that some underperforming areas needed fundamental renewal.

“Broadly speaking, large elements of our public service function well and the majority of our public servants do very good work. The OECD recognises that a vibrant, functioning public sector underpins economic growth. It also recognises the key role our public service played in Ireland’s drive for economic prosperity. The Industrial Development Authority, and latterly the National Treasury Management Agency, are good case studies in that respect.

It is important that we do not forget the significant achievements of the public service and concentrate on planning for more achievements in the future.

We see many people jumping on the bandwagon and looking for any stick with which to beat the public sector. This OECD report is not a stick with which to beat the public sector. It is something of a fillip in terms of the great work part of the public service does and is in many ways a manifesto, even if the language is somewhat difficult to grasp, for the comprehensive renewal the public service needs to go that extra mile for the new Ireland of today after the years of economic expansion and now facing an uncertain period of containment and even faltering growth.

We want a modern, responsive and citizen focused public service. Reform must not be a euphemism for cutbacks or a Trojan horse for a neo-liberal agenda where the only way to deal with the public service is to privatise it, outsource it or get rid of it. We need a fundamental renewal of our public service that puts the citizen first. We must renew our public service to make it fit for purpose and fit to serve Ireland in the 21st century.

Many people are taken with the idea of contracting out all public services but it must be borne in mind that regarding services such as security, education and health it is difficult to envisage the quantum of needs of the citizen being fulfilled purely by private sector profit-driven corporations on their own. We do not have a model of that available anywhere in the world. It can happen in rather narrow areas for a period of time but it tends not to happen in a comprehensive way. For example, if all the babies in a country are to be vaccinated, a properly organised and funded public agency will be required to do it. That is the case if we are talking about Ireland, the United States, Scandinavia or the developing world. Public services are and should be an essential feature of any civilised society.

The truth about the Irish public service is that some elements of it are excellent while others cry out for serious change, renewal and reform. Any consideration of public services must restate the obvious – the public service exists to serve the citizens who, having paid their taxes, are entitled as a right to expect reasonable levels of service in key areas such as health, education, security, transport and the environment.

There is no reason public services and public servants here should not welcome the challenge of renewal this report, and a legion of other reports, puts forward as being central. The public service must move on. It must meet the needs of the citizen effectively, efficiently and at a reasonable price.

The private sector has changed a great deal. There was a time when banks did not open at lunch time. It is taken for granted now that not only can one go to one’s bank at lunch time but one can avail of banking services on-line. The public service must parallel and follow what is happening in the world of private commerce and industry and also deal with the fact that public services are now judged against a global benchmark.

Some of our young people travel to Australia for a year out and experience a quality public transport system. Older people travel to Lisbon and are amazed at the type of public transport system there. When they return here they wonder why such systems are available in comparable countries, some of which do not have our income levels, but not here.

If we want to be a knowledge based society, with high level jobs and high earners who are attracted to live here, our country must function well in terms of the services it provides. We do not want some form of gated community where people are gated in their employment and at home because they do not want to be in the ordinary part of that society. If we want to be at the top in terms of economic performance in the private sector, we also need a vibrant, functioning public service.

Much of the public service has responded well to the challenge of modern Ireland. A good example is the Revenue Commissioners, who collect vastly more taxation, upgraded their computer services under a great deal of pressure and, for the past 20 years, engaged in a real and effective form of decentralisation. They did not simply send functions to isolated locations but decentralised large elements of their services and decision making to areas such as the mid-west region. They show that the public service can do that.

Similarly, the country owes a debt to the Trojan work done by teachers and principals in developing areas who have faced not only the challenges of major growths in population and the need to build and manage extra schools but also the huge new immigrant population that must be catered for. In that respect, I read the last case study at the end of the book about school planning. It defeated the authors of the report in that they failed to understand the full dimensions of the challenge. They pulled their punches when it came to the sad lack of performance of the previous Minister for Education and Science and a number of the officials involved in the debacle of school provision. We have ended up with segregated schools which may be the ghettos of the future unless the public service can recognise that from a policy point of view it is counter to our future economic success, and it must be dealt with. The report is useful but it is not perfect.

Decentralisation was a political stroke. It had operated on a much smaller scale but very successfully in the previous ten to 15 year period and was partly initiated when Labour and Fianna Fáil were in government together. It was a slow and rather expensive process but at that time offering local temporary vacancies in places like Donegal, Sligo and even in Wexford was an enormous economic boost to those areas because the unemployment rate in some areas was well over 20%. It was a tremendous economic fit as well as being innovative.

The problem with the McCreevy report, which the Government must revisit and it is not just a decision for the Civil Service, is that it was a political stroke. Everything was to decentralise all over the place and the consequences of it were that it is incoherent and very destructive, as the OECD report points out, to the collective corporate memory in various Departments.It has resulted in a 90% turnover in some sections. Had the Civil Service been involved in the management of a more modest programme of decentralisation from the beginning, it is quite possible that much more progress would have been made by now, at far less cost than the political stroke undertaken by the former Minister, Mr. McCreevy. Civil servants will be aware that people are being decentralised under what is known as the “hot bedding” system. They are going to various locations to work for two or three days. People are hiring apartments and some use them for the first two or three days of the week and then go back to Dublin or wherever while others take over the flat. It is incredibly costly and certainly not constructive in terms of people’s job satisfaction. The Labour Party has said that this needs to be re-audited and reconsidered and an agreed framework arrived at which is not destructive of the Departments and services involved.

I welcome, too, in this report the proposal by the OECD that the charges introduced by Fianna Fáil for applications under the Freedom of Information Act be scrapped. The sole purpose of those charges was to limit applications for information to which the public and the media should be entitled. They should be in a position to analyse what has gone on in terms of Government performance. The suggestion in the report of greater staff mobility and integration between State agencies, local authorities and the public service would be welcomed in principle, I believe, by the majority of public servants, not least some of those interested in decentralisation – or not, as is the case with more than half of them. However, it will be extraordinarily challenging to deliver that type of change, particularly now when finances are tighter. How does someone who has worked in FÁS, for example, for 20 or 30 years transfer to the general public service system and vice versa? I do not know whether consideration has been given to that.

There is also a suggestion about a two-tiered structure of public service – introducing a type of upper management tier that presumably will have its own pay structure – which needs to be watched very carefully. We have seen an extraordinary gulf arising between the pay of the highest and lowest grades in the public service in recent years, including the pension entitlements of the top bosses, which are estimated to be between 10% and 30% of their salary value.

We have had a unified public service in Ireland since the foundation of the State, one that has largely been free of corruption and unified in purpose. If we are to introduce a segregated two-tier system of the generals on the top on super-pay pensions and conditions, with the ordinary foot soldiers at the bottom, on or close to minimum wages, that will have massive implications for the public service. It may be attractive in the short term from a cost-cutting viewpoint, but as with the Garda structure, because this is such a small country there is value in a unified service to which the people working in it owe a duty of loyalty to the citizens and institutions of the State, as opposed to one in which the lower ranks in particular, perceiving themselves to be abused, are dissociated from such a commitment.