I want to talk about the village of Allenwood, which is in my constituency in County Kildare. It is a beautiful village, not far from Naas, Clane and Rathangan. It is right in the middle of the county. It is a country village, or perhaps I should say that it was a village in 1991, when 303 people were living in it. The latest census, taken in 2022, showed 1,685 people living in the village of Allenwood. The reason I have raised this Topical Issue is to talk to the Minister of State about Scoil Mhuire Allenwood, an amalgamation of two primary school schools, that opened in 2017. The census taken in 2022 told us there were 142 children in the village of Allenwood between the ages of zero and four. The problem we have with Scoil Mhuire Allenwood is that there are 42 applicants for a school place in September next year but only 28 places available. Unfortunately, that leaves a deficit for a number of families. We have spoken previously about the stress that many of those families are under. Many of them also have a child - a sibling of the applicant child- already in the school. That is causing distress for parents. Where will their second child go to school? The school is trying to do everything it can to facilitate new children and to facilitate those who do not have a school place at the moment. It previously put prefabs onto the school grounds. It is using every part of the existing school to accommodate children. There are waiting lists for every class in Scoil Mhuire Allenwood. The school was granted an extension, which was announced a number of years ago. We have been told lately that the process is at stage 2b. That is where it sits at the moment. That leaves us with a deficit of school places for next September. It leaves us with problems for all those families. At this stage, Scoil Mhuire Allenwood is getting up to 40 applications for primary school places per year. That has been the case for the past four to five years and it has created a problem for the school management. The school management wants to work with the Department of education and the local community to ensure that no child who lives in the Allenwood area is without a school place this coming September. The school also applied for a prefab to allow it to accommodate those children without a place in September while the new extension is being built or when construction starts. My request is for the Department to allow that prefab to be placed on the grounds. The management will work with that. A prefab would allow those children without a place to have a much-needed place for September while we still wait for the various stages of the new build to go ahead. I ask the Minister of State, on behalf of the Minister for education, to confirm that the Department will allow that prefab to be placed on site to allow those children to have places and to take the stress off working families who do not have that place at the moment and are contacting me and, indeed, every public representative in south Kildare. As the Minister of State knows, the most important thing for children is that they know what school their friends are going to come next September. At the moment, there is too much stress on families in Allenwood and too many families do not have a school place.

Sentiment score: -0.02

I thank the Minister of State for the reply, with which I do not agree and with which the school management will not agree. I have talked in the Chamber previously about schools in south Kildare. As we know, it is one of the fastest growing areas in the whole country. Sometimes, I wonder what statistics and census the Department is looking at. I have just told the Minister of State what has happened in Allenwood over the past four to five years. There have been 40 applications for school places each of the past four years. That is the difference when it comes to what is happening in Allenwood where the population has increased to the extent it has. It is not a downward trend; it is an upward one. I am sure the Department is receiving emails, because I have seen it copied on the emails I am getting from stressed parents and the school management . The latter does not know where to turn next because it is also getting the calls from parents who do not know where their children will go to school next September. Will the Minister of State bring my request back to the Minister for Education and Youth? I intend to follow up on this matter again - as I am sure, will every public representative in Kildare - namely that the prefabricated building requested, which the Minister of State said is under consideration, be allocated to Scoil Mhuire in Allenwood. We cannot have the number of children involved not having school places in September. As stated previously, families meet up with other families whose children have school places. Children are in GAA clubs. There are excellent ones in Allenwood and the surrounding district. The children speak to one another. One child says they are starting in September and the other, as I have stated in this House on other occasions, says they are not. That causes a serious problem for families. The statistics I have, which were provided by the school management, tell me the school averaged 40 applications for primary school places per year for the past four years. That is not a downward trend. We all welcome the fact that a new school building is on the way, but that will take a number of years. In light of that, will the Minster of State bring back to the Minister the request to allow the provision of this prefabricated building in order to ensure that those who need school places will have them and that the stress of family life will not come down to the fact there are no school places for many families in the Allenwood area?

Sentiment score: 0.04

I thank the Minister of State.

Sentiment score: 0.36