Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

Two separate issues arise from the Deputy's question. Parents in built-up areas might prefer to send their child to a gaelscoil or an Educate Together school but cannot do so. They might prefer the local Church of Ireland school, but it might be full because its numbers have grown and it is obliged to give priority to members of the Church of Ireland community. Such parents might end up having to send their children to second-choice schools. We are prioritising needs that are caused by net additional population demand. We do not yet have the sort of information the Deputy is looking for. Paradoxically, there is a massive excess of demand for certain kinds of schools, including gaelscoileanna and Educate Together schools, in areas that are considered to be mature, including parts of my constituency of Dublin South-East. At the end of the expression of demand process, most if not all children find places in existing schools, although not necessarily in the location their parents would have chosen or with the kind of ethos they would have preferred.

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