The current pressure on places in primary schools has “absolutely nothing to do with people from Ukraine” coming to Ireland, according to Higher Education Minister Simon Harris. 

Enrolment pressures in Kildare, north Wicklow, Dublin, Cork and Galway are forcing many parents to travel long distances to find schools for their children.

Speaking on The Anton Savage Show today, Harris said blaming immigrants for the lack of school places is misleading and even dangerous. 

“I say this with the most respect, a lot of this feeds into the #IrelandIsFull narrative,” Mr Harris said. 

“There's huge pressure on school places in my constituency at the moment and it’s absolutely nothing to do with people in Ukraine. 

“It's a massive increasing in housing and housing estates... it’s to do with a failure of the Department of Education to plan properly. 

“The Minister of Education is doing a very good job but in certain parts of the country I do think they missed some of the demographics.” 

Benefits of migration

Mr Harris said people should redirect their frustration with the country towards immigrants. 

“We need to be very careful we don’t blame people coming to our country for other challenges our country is facing,” he said. 

“Politicians of the centre can no longer take for granted that we will always win the argument of migration. 

“It was President Macron who made the point before that if centrist politicians don’t actually start talking about the benefits of migration, how we handle migration, it just leaves it to the extremes. 

“I think we just need to be very careful we do lose the run of ourselves.” 

Students with intellectual disabilities

Mr Harris also discussed the introduction of new higher education courses for students with intellectual disabilities to prevent them being on a “cliff’s edge” when leaving secondary school. 

“There are mums and dads who lie awake at night in this country looking at the dimples of the ceiling wondering what will happen to my son or daughter as they grow up,” he said. 

Mr Harris referenced Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities as a “exception” to the barriers student face. 

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