At least three prospective first year students in Greystones, Co Wicklow, remain without a secondary school place a week after the term started.
The town has recorded huge demographic growth in recent years but for the third year running a small number of children have received no offer of a school place.
This is despite the fact they have lived in the area for a substantial period and applied to local schools last October as soon as enrolment opened.
Greystones has three secondary schools but several parents in recent years have felt obliged to enrol their child at a nearby private school, at a cost of €8,000 a year, because they had been turned away from all three local publicly funded schools.
Sinead O'Reilly, Mairead Carty and Michelle Wickham say their sons are suffering from watching their friends start secondary school, while they must remain at home.
Two of the boys are 13, while a third turns 13 in November.
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"My son didn't leave home for three days, he didn't go outside as he didn't want to see his friends and other people he knows in their school uniform going to school", said Ms Carty, to RTÉ's Drivetime.
"It's affecting his self-esteem. He asks 'what's wrong with me?', 'why is this happening to me?'. There is a part of him that would feel inferior", she added.
"We realised very early on that my son was very down the far waiting lists", said Ms Wickham, "he has attended Greystones in primary school his whole life. "He's sitting at home sad watching all his friends go off to school".
"It's supposed to be an exciting time - what is supposed to be a fun and exciting time has been taken away from him. He feels excluded. We've applied to five schools and nothing".
Ms O'Reilly's daughter is attending school in Greystones, but her son can not find a place.
"We live within walking distance of two of the schools - he can cycle to the other. He's 13 - he wants to start. He watches his older sister and younger brother walk off to school everyday and he's stuck at home dejected with me".
Emergency places created last year
Last year, parents held protests in Greystones when it became apparent as many as 70 children were to be left without a secondary school place. This prompted the creation of 72 emergency first-year places for the 2024/25 academic year.
Last autumn, Tánaiste Simon Harris reassured parents that he was working to address the shortage of school places in his hometown.
However, Ms O'Reilly, Ms Carty and Ms Wickham claim they've been let down by both Mr. Harris and the Department of Education, having engaged constantly with both since issues around their sons' school place emerged last October. The three parents also say they've been ignored in their concerns.
"I've had e-mails from Simon Harris' office and Helen McEntee saying again every child would get a place - that no child in Greystones would be left without a school place, but that's not the fact now. Our three children are without a school place", said Ms O'Reilly.
"The empty promises are upsetting and hurtful. The Department of Education could step in and create three emergency places. They could solve this", she added.
"Minister McEntee just needs to ring up those three principals and say these boys need a place. One extra chair, one extra locker in each school for three boys without an education who are suffering", said Ms Carty.
New school building to cater for 1,000 students
Greystones Community College is the town's youngest school. Just five years old, it is in temporary accommodation on a temporary site. But, a new school building, which will cater for 1,000 students is due to be delivered shortly.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said Minister McEntee is "working intensively to increase the number of school places across the country", but they stopped short of proffering a solution for the three boys in Greystones left without a place.
"In Wicklow alone, the Department has delivered 46 building projects and invested over €209m in school capital expenditure since 2020 with a further 41 projects at various stages of the architectural design and construction process. The Minister continues to engage with the Tánaiste on these matters" they added.
Greystones is also part of a pilot Single Application System for admission to first year at post-primary schools in five towns for the 2026/27 academic year.
"The pilot will provide a single online application form for parents or guardians who want to apply for a first-year place for their child in participating schools, including for special classes.
"This pilot marks a significant step towards fulfilling the Programme for Government commitment to introduce a nationwide common application system. Applications will open from 1 October 2025 for school places in September 2026", the spokesperson added.
Social Democrats TD for Wicklow Jennifer Whitmore told RTÉ's Drivetime how a lack of school places in Greystones has been an issue for ten years and called for more urgent measures from the Department to address it.
