Twelve Limerick boys who were left without a secondary school placement, some for more than a year, have received offers of places in schools of their choice.
The families received the offers yesterday afternoon after a 2½-hour meeting between the principals of eight Limerick city schools and officials of the National Educational Welfare Board. "No school refused to offer a place at the meeting," said a Department source.
Yesterday's meeting followed Monday's visit to the city by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, amid growing controversy about 20 children who had been left without any second-level education.
Those discussions culminated in an agreement by the city school principals that they would enrol children from all social backgrounds and would give priority to city children.
The parents of the 12 who received yesterday's offers had expressed a wish for their children to attend mainstream schools. The remaining eight had dropped out of mainstream education in previous years, according to the Department, receiving only "intermittent education".
They have now been offered alternative structured education, such as home tuition or the Youthreach programme.
Anthony Quinn (14) had already missed a year's education and it seemed he might be about to miss out on another when his father, Mr Andrew Quinn, decided to go public about his son's predicament.
Mr Quinn said yesterday that they had applied to three secondary schools for a place in both 2003 and 2004, and their first choice had always been Coláiste Mhichíl, also known as CBS Sexton Street. While a beaming Anthony sped off on his bike in the rain to break the good news to his friends that he would be joining them at Coláiste Mhichíl, his father said it was a pity that he had had to expose himself and his son to the media.
"I was embarrassed, to be honest with you," he said. "I didn't want people knowing our business. But I don't think I had a choice in the end. He's got into a school now, and that's partially admitting that I was right. I hope this means that this can't happen to any other child, but we'll see.
"It's funny, isn't it, that all of a sudden he can go into the school he wanted in the first place."
He knows it will not be easy for Anthony to catch up after a year outside the system. "I've told him that but I told him that it'll be easier next year. Just for now, I can't believe he's back in school. I'm going to go down to get his uniform tomorrow so it'll be there for him to see," he said.
While this crisis has been resolved, there are those who believe the root causes have not been addressed. One school principal sounded a cautious note, saying that unless certain procedures were put in place to ensure a balanced intake of pupils, the same situation would arise next year.
Cllr John Ryan, of Labour, said that while he welcomed the offers, "late and all as they are", he also believed the same problems would arise next year.
"A number of schools still haven't changed their policies," he said. "A leopard doesn't change its spots."
A statement from the Department said the Minister was due to have further discussions "in the next few days" with all post-primary schools in the greater Limerick area, "to ensure that a co-ordinated approach will be taken by all schools to enrolments for 2005-6".