Department reassures Limerick parents whose children were not offered school place
Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick City, Willie O’Dea, says parents devastated that their children had not secured a place in a secondary school. Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins
The Department of Education is working on contingency plans for 26 Limerick students who did not receive an offer of a secondary school place for the next academic year.
Efforts to accommodate the students are being made as other schools across the country have waiting lists for places for the 2023/24 academic year. The plight of 14 students who are without a space after failing to secure a place at Clonakilty Community College will be discussed next week at a routine meeting of the school’s board of management.
The Limerick students had applied for places through the unique system used in Limerick for secondary school places. Under the Common Application System in Limerick, all secondary schools in Limerick City, Croom, and Pallaskenry make their offers together, with offers made to students for the schools on Wednesday. However, 26 students were not offered a place in any of the schools under the system.
Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea said he was contacted on Wednesday morning by parents devastated that their children had not secured a place in a secondary school.
The Department of Education says it has been in close engagement with Limerick Education Centre and school patron regarding the issue.
A spokesman for the department added: “Families can be assured that any necessary solution will be delivered so that all of the children currently without a place can be accommodated.”
According to the department, schools in Limerick City have already increased their available places by over 100 for the next academic year, including 44 additional places made available in the last week.
He said: “It is expected that some students who have been offered places instead accept places in other non-city schools. It is likely that this will free up places that will meet the needs of some or all of the students currently without a place.”
"There will be further clarity on this in the coming weeks.”
In recent weeks, a number of TDs have lodged parliamentary questions relating to children who have not managed to secure a place in schools across the country, including in Limerick, Kildare, and Mayo.
Fine Gael senator Tim Lombard said a number of parents have been in touch with him in relation to their sons not having secured places in Clonakilty, noting that there is no other secondary school for boys in the town.
