Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 November 2020
459. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education the reason Honey Park, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, is excluded from the catchment area of school patronage for Blackrock, Booterstown and Dún Laoghaire (details supplied). [36159/20]
View answerIn order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data in a way that takes account of the significant local and regional variations in demographic trends and enrolment projections, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas (SPAs).
Using school planning area boundaries within my Department’s Geographic Information System (GIS) allows data within those boundaries, including data for enrolments in schools, child benefit and other relevant data to be added to the mapping information, grouped and analysed.
The school planning areas are used in the demographic exercise as a basis for the assessment of areas of growth and to inform recommendations on the establishment of any new schools required in that school planning area. In urban areas, in particular, data relating to adjacent school planning areas is also used to inform our consideration of requirements. There are no current plans to revise school planning areas.
The new post primary school to which the Deputy refers was announced in 2018 following nationwide demographic analysis which identified an emerging demand at post primary level in the Booterstown_Blackrock and Dunlaoghaire SPAs. For that reason, the school is being established in 2021 as a regional solution to serve those school planning areas.
For school planning purposes, Honey Park is located in the Sallynoggin_Killiney_DLR school planning area, which is adjacent to the Dunlaoghaire SPA. As the Deputy may be aware, a new 8 classroom primary school is to be established in 2021 to serve the Sallynoggin_Killiney_DLR/North school planning area and a patronage process for that school has just commenced, with school patron bodies/prospective school patron bodies invited to apply for the patronage of the new primary school. It is anticipated that the Online Patronage Process System (OPPS) for this school will open for parental preferences soon after the patron application process is completed.
The OPPS for the new post-primary school for the Booterstown_Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire school planning areas, along with three other post-primary schools to be established in 2021, is currently ongoing.
All new schools established since 2011 to meet demographic demand are required to prioritise the enrolment of children from within the designated school planning areas which the school is being established to serve. Accordingly, only parents of eligible children residing in the school planning area can express a preference with regard to the patronage of the new school. However, it is important to note that this does not preclude schools from enrolling pupils from outside of the designated school planning area, rather it reflects the need to accommodate in the first instance the demographic for which the school was established. An expression of a parental preference for patronage of a school is not an application for enrolment. Once the school has been established, parents must apply directly to the school in relation to their child’s enrolment in the normal way.
