Half of the children living in Dublin 8 will not have a local secondary school place next year, a campaign group has said.
Educate D8 is calling for a new school to be built in the area as demand for places in existing schools is too high.
They have started a letter-writing campaign to Education Minister Norma Foley due to the "dire shortage" of secondary schools there- with half of all primary school children forced to leave the area to attend secondary school.
The group says parents are being forced in some cases to apply for over a dozen schools all across Dublin and hope for a spot.
Educate D8 Spokesperson Louise Fitzpatrick told Newstalk there is a lack of investment in the area.
"Right now in Dublin 8 we have five secondary schools and all of these secondary schools are run by religious orders," she said.
"Their numbers cater for half of the children living in the area.
"Over the years the area has been under-invested with regard to secondary school provision, while other areas - I suppose a lot more affluent areas - have been favoured with the provision of new schools, particularly multi-denominational co-educational schools.
"Now [there is] a situation where there's only enough school places for half the children living in the area which obviously means that half the children are leaving the area".
'90-minute commute'
Ms Fitzpatrick said children going to secondary schools elsewhere involves long commutes.
"The Sandymount Educate Together Secondary School was built specifically for the needs of students in Dublin 8 but it involves... a 90-minute commute each way," she said.
"Kids are facing these long commutes [and] school communities are being broken up.
"In a lot of the local primary schools the kids are going from a class of 28, going on to up to 14 different secondary schools."
'Upheaval'
Ms Fitzpatrick said their area is often overlooked.
"I've heard of parents applying up to 17 [or] 18 different secondary schools and not knowing where they will get a place until, often, the summer time," she said.
"If your first choice is a school outside the area... they're down the bottom of the list because we're not in the catchment area.
"Because we're in an urban area, it often gets overlooked because unlike [in] rural areas our kids can just jump on two buses and a Luas to get to another part of the city.
"But it involves a huge time commitment and an upheaval."
Teenage students in a classroom.Ms Fitzpatrick said Dublin 8 is one of the "most under provided areas in the whole of Dublin" for secondary school provision.
"There is only enough schools and places for half the children who live here and this is an intentional choice by the Department of Education not to put new schools in this area while they have [in] a lot of nearby areas.
"If you take an area like Booterstown, Blackrock - that area already has a ratio of three-times the amount of secondary school places as there are kids.
"That area got prioritised for a new Educate Together multi-denominational secondary school while our area, which only has one place for every two students living in the area, got offered places in a school in Sandymount.
"Sandymount, Harold's Cross, Blackrock - all of these areas have been prioritised for the building of new schools, all of which have a lot more provision of existing places than our area does."
'Applying all over'
Ms Fitzpatrick said parents need non-denominational options.
"In this area in Dublin, about 62% of the population are not Catholic [but] four of the five schools are Catholic so they don't align with the the beliefs of the majority of the residents in the area," she said.
"One is Church of Ireland which is completely oversubscribed.
"But people are applying to these schools - they're applying to schools outside the area.
"They're applying all over and just hoping they get a place that meets the ambitions, needs, values and interests of their child.
"Usually they just have to take whatever they're offered and they might not find that out often until very soon before the children start".
Ms Fitzpatrick added that a new multi-denominational secondary school in Dublin 8 would give children "the same rights and access to a school" that children in other areas have.
