Speaking on the issue, Deputy Brady said:
“This is absolutely disgraceful. The Minister for Education personally gave commitments to myself and to families in Greystones that no child would be left without a secondary school place this September. She gave those families her word. Yet here we are, with schools already two weeks into the academic year, and children are still sitting at home without a place.
“Now, to make matters worse, I am also being contacted by families in Bray whose children have no secondary school place either. This is a devastating and stressful situation for parents and children alike, and the Minister is completely failing them.”
Deputy Brady said that instead of taking responsibility, the Minister is now blaming the problem on duplicate enrolments and passing the buck to Tusla’s educational welfare officers.
“Rather than facing up to her own failings, the Minister is now abdicating responsibility. She is attempting to shift the blame onto Tusla, despite the fact that she previously assured parents this would not happen. Families have reported to me that they are being told by Tusla that they are entitled to just 9 hours of home tuition per week, and that they must source their own tutor. That is the government’s idea of a solution for children left without a school place. It is disgraceful.”
Brady paid tribute to local schools for doing all they can but said the root of the problem lies squarely with government inaction and failure to plan ahead.
“I want to pay credit to the principals, teachers and school staff who have bent over backwards to accommodate as many students as possible. But the reality is that the Department has left them with an impossible situation. This crisis has not come out of nowhere. I have been raising the need for extra post-primary places in Greystones for years, and yet the government has done nothing meaningful to resolve it.
“Worse still, the government continues to refuse to sanction a badly needed secondary school for Newtownmountkennedy, despite the clear and growing demand in the area. Instead of planning ahead, they lurch from crisis to crisis, and it is children and families who are paying the price.”
Deputy Brady said he has again written to the Minister to demand urgent action:
“This cannot continue. No child should be left without a school place, least of all weeks into the school term. The Minister gave her word to these families, and she has failed them. Families in Greystones, Bray and across Wicklow deserve better than excuses and broken promises.”