Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the catch-up fund and funding being made available to schools, the Deputy rightly made reference to disadvantaged children. Some €150 million a year is allocated to our DEIS schools. As I have said, in excess of €639 million has been expended on schools' reopening. We are working on an extended or enhanced summer provision programme which will help in compensating for a loss of in-person teaching and learning experiences. The Deputy will be aware the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has made available a €2.1 billion contingency fund for Covid-19. The Department of Education is a named Department in that respect. Obviously, we will be looking to access funding from there.

We have recently announced measures to extend the school completion programme. We are working on the provision of the extended summer programme.

The Deputy spoke about the demographic issues in his own area in north Dublin and he has raised this with me previously. I will give it some context. There are 314 school planning areas which use the geographical information system containing data compiled from a variety of sources. Conscious that major new residential developments, including some in the Deputy's own area, can add to pressure within an area, the Department now also liaises with local authorities.

I am cognisant that specific issues in an area may arise for a variety of reasons, including duplication of applications and parents being particular about the school they want to choose.

There may be an external draw where pupils are coming from outside a local area. Specifically, however, the Department is aware of the issues in the Deputy's own area, which he has raised with me. We are conscious that we are currently working with the patrons and the schools to address any issues in that specific area and that we have planning exemptions which can be used to provide for any additional temporary accommodation on school sites. We now also have a modular accommodation framework in place to shorten the procurement timeline. The Department is satisfied, specifically with regard to that particular area, that requirements for September 2021 and beyond can be met. It is an area of particular concern to us, in that we know areas are growing. We have mechanisms in place where we are identifying future growth spurts.