Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Shortall. The matter was raised last week but she did not get a chance to be here on that occasion. I am delighted to be able to respond today.

The background to this is the 2012 report of the advisory group to the forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector, which recommended that demand for patronage diversity should be met in areas of stable population by divesting patronage of existing schools where there is evidence of parental demand for change. In this context, in 2012 and 2013, my Department undertook surveys of parental preferences in 43 areas of stable population to establish the level of demand for a wider choice in the patronage of primary schools. These areas were all stable in terms of population growth, so no new school places were required.

The establishment and size of the schools indicated by the Deputy have origins in the report on the pilot surveys regarding parental preferences on primary school patronage and the report on the surveys regarding parental preferences on primary school patronage, which indicated a size of at least half a single-stream school, comprising four classrooms, being required to accommodate parental demand in the case of Tramore, Trim and Castlebar, and up to four classrooms in the case of New Ross and Tuam.

Under the patronage divesting process, a school could be opened where a school building became, or was due to become, available as a result of an amalgamation or closure of an existing school. In some areas, in responding to demand for diversity, where existing patrons were unable to make school properties available, my Department included an examination of properties held in public ownership.

All schools irrespective of their location have to operate within their available accommodation and manage annual pupil intake accordingly. The initial establishment of the indicated schools as four classroom schools, and the need to be cognisant of managing the available accommodation, has been reflected in my Department's engagement with the patron body of these schools, Educate Together. When one of the schools raised the issue of expanding its enrolment my Department invited Educate Together to submit a case to it in this regard. The case has been submitted by Educate Together to further expand five schools under its patronage that opened under the patronage divesting process.

These are Educate Together national schools in Castlebar, New Ross, Tramore, Trim and Tuam. A case for each of these schools is current under consideration. My Department is carrying out nationwide demographic exercises at primary and post-primary levels to identify areas of demographic growth and determine where additional school accommodation is needed in order to plan for school provision nationwide. This work is almost complete.

In this context the outcome of the nationwide demographic exercises will have an input into the consideration of the case submitted by Educate Together. In addition, I have announced a new patronage reconfiguration process which will accelerate the delivery of multidenominational and non-denominational schools to reach 400 such schools by 2030. There have been previous efforts at transferring patronage but we must be honest and admit they have not worked. Only ten schools transferred to multidenominational patronage as a result of the previous process set up by the former Minister, Mr. Ruairí Quinn, in 2012.

The figure is lower than was hoped for. The new process is designed to build on lessons learned from the previous process and deliver more multidenominational and non-denominational schools. That is what we believe it will do. Unlike the previous process, this plan will focus on live transfers so that a school that transfers under the new process will not be reliant on temporary accommodation.

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