Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I am grateful for the opportunity of outlining to the House, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, the actions being taken by the Department of Education and Science with regard to the enrolments of the new primary school in Naas.

Scoil Bhríde national school is a new school which opened in September 2005. It currently accommodates two junior infant classes and when fully occupied it will operate as a two-stream, 16-classroom school. To enable it develop in this manner, it can only enrol two junior infant classes annually. This incremental development is common to all newly established schools to ensure that a shortage of accommodation at the school is avoided by over-enrolment in the early stages and, crucially, that the enrolments and staffing levels in other schools in the area, from which older pupils would inevitably be drawn, are not adversely affected. Notwithstanding this position and as an exceptional matter, the school has been given approval to enrol three junior infant classes for the next school year on the grounds that this will not impact negatively on the other schools in question.

Typically, a new school commences in temporary accommodation, which is provided incrementally thereafter to meet the school's junior infant intake level each year in the context of junior infant accommodation available in other schools in the area. A new school would have achieved a certain sustainable growth level without affecting other schools before transferring to its permanent accommodation. Its developmental curve would continue on this basis until all its accommodation is in use.

If a building is available for the school in question at inception, it does not mean that an orderly growth can be abandoned given the effect excessive enrolments will have on other schools in the area which have also been funded by the taxpayer. While enrolment policies are a matter for school authorities, the Department of Education and Science expects the enrolment polices of individual schools to complement the demand for pupil places in an area and, as in this case, to assist the growth of the new school in an orderly fashion. This is in the best interests of the schools, pupils and wider community alike.

Fundamentally, the existing schools, which have served the community well, particularly by obliging with extra pupil places when there was severe pressure for such places in recent years, now have a certain level of accommodation and teaching allocations in place. This cannot be ignored because a new school and new building have come on stream which will, in their own right, cater for the continuing growing needs of the area, as was always the Department's intention. The new school will of course be expected to cater for the small number of pupils in classes higher than infants for whom no place is available in the existing established schools in the town. The new school will be expected to cater for the small number of pupils in classes higher than infants for whom no place is available in the existing established schools in the town. The Department is confident that, between them, the primary schools in Naas can meet the needs of the increasing schoolgoing population in the town. I hope my reply was of some benefit to the Deputy.

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