Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2024
72. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Education her plans to increase capacity of secondary school places in the Dublin mid-west area; the status of any proposed school building projects in the area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16365/24]
View answerI can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department.
As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.
My Department has delivered significant expanded capacity in Dublin West, including the new schools for Adamstown Community College and Kishogue Community College. These two new schools alone have delivered 2,000 additional school places in recent years.
There are also a large number of building projects on site or in train across Dublin West including new school buildings for the recently established Coláiste Pobail Fola and Griffeen Community College. New school buildings or extensions are also in train for Holy Family Community School, Tallaght Community School, St. Joseph's College and Lucan Community College. The projects, when completed, will collectively deliver an additional 6,000 new and modernised school places.
Multiple smaller projects providing additional accommodation are also at various stages of planning and delivery.
Notwithstanding this scale of ongoing project delivery, the Department is aware of pressures for school places in School Planning Areas in Dublin West. In that context, as part of planning for September 2024, data on applications for admission has been received by the department from post-primary schools across areas of known enrolment pressure including the School Planning Areas of Lucan and Newcastle_Rathcoole. The sharing of this data has been helpful in the identification of school place requirements across the areas.
However, in urban areas such as Dublin mid-west, there can be a high degree of inward and outward mobility of children between School Planning Areas. Parents and guardians are free to apply to enrol their children in any school, whether that is in the School Planning Area in which they reside or not. This mobility adds significant complexity to the identification of actual school place needs in these areas. In particular, there can be multiple iterations of school place offers, where applicants may accept a place but subsequently be offered and accept a place at a second school, freeing up capacity at the first school accepted.
In that overall context, while some applicants may not yet have received an offer of a school place for 2024/25, families can be assured that all children who require a school place will be provided with one. The Department is continuing to work with schools and patrons to ensure that there are sufficient school places available, and to put any required solutions in place. As part of this engagement with patrons, the Department is also collaboratively planning towards 2025/26 and future years, as part of forward planning generally.
I can assure the Deputy that Department officials will continue to actively engage with schools and patrons to ensure that there is appropriate provision for all students in Dublin Mid-West for the 2024/25 school year and into the future.
