The Government's failure to provide new school buildings where large scale residential developments are being built is an "embarrassment" and must be urgently addressed according to Educate Together.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of Educate Together, the representative organisation for multi-denominational schools, chief executive Paul Rowe said a change to the Planning and Development Act was required.
He said the transfer of school sites should be a condition of planning or rezoning as currently applies to public open spaces and roads.
"Such a move would cut the sheer stress and trauma, leading sometimes to exhaustion tinged with despair that parent activists experience when they move into a new estate and wake up to the realisation that unless they campaign, no school will occur," said Mr Rowe.
As Ireland's population becomes increasingly diverse in its cultural and religious backgrounds, a ready availability of non-denominational schools is necessary and planning for this national network must commence immediately delegates at the meeting heard.
Added to the perceived lack of school planning, the cost of school sites was now averaging around €2 million per acre and was subsequently forcing the Department of Education to "cram larger and larger schools into small sites", according to Mr Rowe. In a system of 3,200 schools, where some 21,000 volunteers undertake significant management responsibilities, he said adequate support was not made available to them.
"In the past years, the burden of administrative, financial and legal regulation of the system has continued to increase, whilst support from the department has remained low," said Mr Rowe.
Bringing the capitation grant for primary education into line with that of second level and providing accredited courses for board members were listed as possible support measures.
In her address to the meeting, the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin, recognised that in a system of 4,000 schools where some schools are over 150 years old, there was a necessity to improve school facilities. She said her department would spend €500 million on school buildings this year and added that core funding to Educate Together had trebled in 2006 to €120,000.