School places

Greystones Councillor and Chairperson of Greystones Community College (GCC),  Lourda Scott has expressed disappointment at the Department of Education’s slow response to the  pressure on secondary school places in the area.  This followed a joint press release from the Principals of the 3 secondary schools in Greystones confirming that 75 less places would be offered for September 2024.

Scott said: “The difficulty in getting secondary school places for constituents was the subject on every door when I ran for election in 2019. There has been some progress since then but we seem to be back in the same position almost 5 years later. The news that secondary schools in Greystones have capacity issues is no surprise to anyone and shouldn’t be any news to the Department of Education.  These issues have been flagged for years, yet progress on school buildings remains at snail pace. One positive bit of news was regarding the permanent build for GCC . The tender process has closed and we have a projected completion date of 2025, providing there are no more delays.

I will continue to work with the school community and our TDs to push the Department of Education to address this shortfall in the meantime. The lack of planning and certainty for parents is simply unacceptable. There seems to be no accountability within the Department for this failure to support children's access to education. I have already seen vulnerable children left without a school place in their community. It is absolutely unacceptable in this day and age that this should happen.

Please contact me if you will be affected by this news and I will be writing to the Minister to raise these concerns.”