Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Varadkar for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the actions being taken by the Department to address the school accommodation needs of the Porterstown, Caperterstown and Clonsilla areas of Dublin 15.

I am very conscious that the Dublin 15 area as a whole is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the country and, as a result, there has been a marked increase in the demand for primary school places. The Department is taking a number of measures to increase the capacity of existing schools in the area concerned along with the development of new schools to meet this growing demand. All building projects arising from these interventions are awarded a band one priority rating under the Department's prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects to ensure that they are delivered as expeditiously as possible. With particular reference to the Porterstown, Carpenterstown and Clonsilla areas, a number of interventions have been made to ensure adequate school provision.

Three schools serve the area. St. Patrick's National School moved into a new 24-classroom school last year. This school facilitates an annual three stream intake, while St. Mochta's National School was expanded in 2006 to cater for an annual four-stream intake. The school planning section liaised closely with the local authority and these schools and determined that up to an additional 90 children would require junior places for September 2007. In that context a third school, Scoil Choilm, was opened in Diswellstown, Dublin 15 under the temporary patronage of the Roman Catholic Church in September 2007 and enrolled three streams of junior infants. The school is temporarily accommodated in a VEC-owned building, the Institute of Horology in Blanchardstown. Given the age of the children, transport has been made available.

As the Deputy will be aware, in December 2007 I announced that a new State model of community national school, under the patronage of County Dublin Vocational Education Committee, VEC, is to be piloted in the Phoenix Park Racecourse and Phibblestown from September 2008. In addition, Scoil Choilm is to transition to the new community national school model. Since then, following recent consultations with the school community, the temporary patron and County Dublin VEC, it has been agreed that Scoil Choilm should come under the new pilot patronage model arrangements from September 2008.

The new model has been developed following a period of consultation with all of the main education partners and church groups. As in the primary school system generally, the schools will operate under the management of an independent board of management. The VEC will be represented on the board of management as patron and will provide relevant practical management supports to the school. Arrangements will be in place to enable the VEC to meet its general financial accountability responsibilities. I also indicated that I would bring proposals to Government to provide necessary amending legislation to underpin the VEC role in the primary sector. Pending the enactment of the legislation, I, as Minister for Education and Science, will act as interim patron for the new schools.

Regarding the Carpenterstown Educate Together parents group that has been established, I understand that an application for recognition of a new school in Carpenterstown in September 2008 has been received by the new schools advisory committee, NSAC. No advice has been received from that group and therefore no decision has been taken yet on the number of new multi-denominational schools which will open in Fingal in the 2008-09 school year. However, Educate Together has lodged with the NSAC a number of notifications of intention to apply for the recognition of new schools in the north Dublin area for next September.

The NSAC is an independent advisory group established to process applications for the recognition of new primary schools and to make recommendations to me. I expect that the NSAC will produce its report in April 2008.

All options will be considered to ensure there are enough school places in September. Owing to the level of demand emanating from the Dublin 15 area, the need to make further provision at primary level in addition to that outlined by me is being kept under continuous review by the Department. I am confident that the measures outlined will assist in alleviating the immediate demand for school places in the area and I thank the Deputy for allowing me the opportunity to respond to this issue.

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