Earlier this year the previous Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Dempsey, introduced a new planning model for educational infrastructure to ensure that, in future, school provision will be decided after a transparent consultation process. In this regard, trustees, parents, sponsors of prospective schools and all interested parties from a locality will have the opportunity to have their voices heard in the process.
The main feature of the new model, being introduced initially on a pilot basis in five specific areas, is the publication of an area development plan which will set out a blueprint for education infrastructure in the particular area into the future.
The components of the draft area development plan are as follows: details of existing primary and post primary provision; examination of the demographics of the area; commentary on the data; and recommendations for the area into the future.
Following publication of each draft area development plan, the Commission on School Accommodation will conduct a public engagement process to which all interested parties can make submissions. All of these submissions will be published. The process in each case will culminate in the publication of a final area development plan against which all capital funding decisions will be made over the next decade.
The location of the proposed new school to which the Deputy refers is being considered through the process outlined above, as it forms part of one of the pilot area development plans, for which the draft area development plan will be published in the near future.
