David Stanton
Question:64. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Education her plans to establish a new second level school in the east Cork area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16461/24]
View answerTuesday, 16 April 2024
Questions (64)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
What plans does the Minister and her Department have for another second level school in east Cork? This is probably one of the fastest-growing areas in the country at the moment, with thousands of houses planned but many of the schools there are already at capacity, even though they have got fantastic extensions. I would be interested in the Minister's response.
Requirements for school places are kept under ongoing review in the context of available information on population, enrolments and residential development activity. In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, the Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. A geographical information system is used to analyse data drawn from a range of sources, including CSO census data, child benefit and school enrolment data. This analysis enables the Department to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise and where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary levels. The school planning areas in east Cork include Midleton, Carrigtwohill, Fermoy, Cobh, Youghal and Mitchelstown.
Major new residential developments have the potential to alter the demand for school places at a local level. In that regard, as part of the demographic demand analysis, the Department of Education also monitors planning and construction activity in the residential sector. This involves the analysis of data sources from local authorities and the CSO along with the engagement with local authorities and the construction sector. In this way, up-to-date information on significant new residential developments is obtained and factored into the demographic analysis exercise. This is necessary to ensure that schools infrastructure planning is keeping pace with demographic changes at a local level, where there is a constantly evolving picture with planned new residential development.
Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested over €544 million across 104 projects of various scales in County Cork. This includes a number of significant projects in east Cork, as the Deputy referred to, such as the recently completed project at Carrigtwohill post-primary school, which delivered a new, modern 1,000-pupil permanent school building. An extension to St. Colman's Community College in Midleton has also been recently completed to cater for up to 1,000 pupils. Other projects being advanced in east Cork include expanded capacity at the Christian Brothers Secondary School and St. Mary's High School in Midleton. In addition, St. Aloysius College, Carrigtwohill will expand to cater for 1,000 pupils, while Pobalscoil na Tríonóide in Youghal will cater for 1,200 pupils, and Coláiste Mhuire and Carrignafoy Community College, both in Cobh, will cater for 600 and over 700 pupils respectively.
I thank the Minister for her response. I visited the Carrigtwohill second level school recently where the Minister turned the sod a while back. It is absolutely magnificent and amazing. It did take 12 years to open from the time the initial decision was made to build it. Has the Minister seen the two-year progress report on the Cork county development plan that was published last Friday? She probably has not. It indicates that in Midleton there are plans to develop 2,647 housing units and 2,173 of them have got planning permission already. In Carrigtwohill, the number is 1,700 houses and almost 1,000 have got planning permission already. I could go on to all the other hamlets and villages around in a similar vein. My concern is that thousands of houses are being planned. There will be huge numbers of houses, which is fantastic to see. Many of the schools the Minister mentioned already are at capacity as it is, however, so what plans are there to develop a further second level school in east Cork? I would put it to the Minister that an Educate Together school would be worth looking at in this regard.
I thank the Deputy. Where demographic data indicates that additional school places are required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through a variety of different circumstances. This could include utilising existing unused capacity, which I know, as the Deputy said, is not an easy thing to do in east Cork because such capacity may not be available. Another option might be extending the capacity of a school or schools, or, as the Deputy has requested, the provision of a new school or schools.
If additional accommodation is required, the aim is to try and facilitate this, as much as possible, by way of expansion of existing schools rather than establishing new schools. This is the preference in this regard. The expansion of existing schools is consistent with wider Government objectives under Project Ireland 2040 for an increased emphasis on compact growth. In respect of post-primary schools, new post-primary schools must have a student enrolment capacity of 600 to 1,000 students. A lower threshold of 400 students may apply to Gaelcholáistí, having regard to the alternative of establishing an Irish-medium aonad in an English-medium school.
Given the level of existing and planned provision, the Department is satisfied that the provision of a new school entity at post-primary level in the east Cork area is not required at this time. We will, however, keep it under review. I will specifically refer, going forward, to the plan the Deputy mentioned.
I thank the Minister for her response. I would be interested to know if she could forward to me information on the school planning areas. She mentioned there are 314 of them, and I ask her to forward the details of the east Cork one to me at some stage. We know that many schools now have got extensions to extensions, and they are at capacity. My concern is that in five, six or ten years' time we will be in real trouble because of the massive and very welcome growth in housing in the area. I ask the Minister to ask her officials to look at this situation again in light of the recent progress report I mentioned, which Cork County Council published only this week. It makes fantastic reading in the context of the development and building of houses and so on, which are so badly needed, but in parallel with this endeavour we need schools. The existing schools are full. They have got extensions to extensions in some of them, while at the same time the population is growing. If we have 5,000 houses and if each of those were to have one child, then that would be 5,000 extra children. This equates to a lot of school places.
To be fair, as the Deputy will appreciate, I know this area and I am aware that it is growing. I also know that, to be fair, there has been inordinate and richly deserved investment from the Department into this area. We have seen this across a whole variety of schools, whether this concerns the Carrigtwohill post-primary school, St. Colman's Community College, the CBS and St. Mary's in Midleton or St. Aloysius College in Carrigtwohill, as well as the schools in Cobh. The Department, as I said earlier, does engage with the local authority. We do look at a variety of different data under the GIS, but we do specifically engage with the local authorities. I think it is important that we have an openness at all times to keep an open mind and look at changing trends as they alter and evolve over time, so I will ask the officials to make reference to the latest information that is coming from Cork County Council, with a view specifically to east Cork.
Question No. 65 taken with Written Answers.