Wicklow Sinn Féin local election candidates for Greystones Esther Kelly and Brian Fogarty have condemned the failure of the government to resolve the debacle around secondary school places in Greystones. Just a matter of weeks before the secondary schools finish up for the year there are still 12 children and their families who don’t know if they will have a school place available to them come September, despite all the promises and assurances from the government of Fine Gael Taoiseach Simon Harris, who seems much more focussed on electioneering than the welfare of his young constituents.
Esther Kelly:
“It is totally unacceptable that we have a situation in Greystones where there are 12 young pupils and their families in a situation where just a few weeks out from when the four secondary schools in the Greystones area will close for the summer holidays, they still remain unaware if they will secure a school placement for September.
The stress and anxiety experienced by the students and their families is unnecessary. We just need to see the government get up and get on the job.
In the words of a parent of one of the children, they feel like they ‘are going around in circles and have so many emotions of upset, anger, frustration, despair to name but a few’.”
Brian Fogarty said:
“How Simon Harris can remain unmoved by this situation is beyond me. It appears to me that he and his party colleagues are far more concerned with the outcome of the EU and local elections here in Wicklow than they are with the welfare of the 12 young people left hung out to dry by a government more concerned with power than people.
The Taoiseach can hold all the electoral jamborees that he wants, but it will not distract the people of Greystones from the failure of his government, particularly in relation to the fate of these children.
We are once again calling on Taoiseach Simon Harris to use his influence on his government to source a solution for the pupils in Wicklow who are still left without a school place in September.”