Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Topical Issue debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to post-primary school places in Greystones for September 2024 and onwards. I assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post-primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs, is an absolute priority for the Department.

As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a geographical information system, GIS, to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including child benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development, is used for this purpose. In addition, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform the Department’s projections for school place requirements. Having considered the projected requirements in each school planning area, the Department then makes an assessment of the existing capacity within that particular area and its ability to meet any increased demand. Where data indicate that additional provision is required at primary or post-primary level, the delivery of such provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through either one or a combination of utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools, extending the capacity of a school or schools and the provision of a new school or schools.

The Department is aware of pressures at post-primary level in the Greystones school planning area, which are partly due to the currently proposed reduction in first year places for 2024-2025, and is working to establish the true extent of any capacity issues across the school planning area through ongoing discussions with the relevant school patrons and authorities. This close engagement will also allow the Department to identify particular capacity requirements for the coming years and put any required solutions in place to ensure sufficient school places to meet the needs of students in the area.

The Department's projections of post-primary school place requirements in Greystones show an anticipated continued growth in enrolments until 2024. In response to the projections of school place needs in Greystones, the Department is providing significant additional post-primary capacity, including a new 1,000-pupil school building for Greystones Community College. Greystones Community College was established in 2020 as a regional solution for the Kilcoole and Greystones area. The project to deliver this new school building is at stage 3, the tender stage. In addition to this project, the Department has recently delivered a major building project to expand St. David’s Holy Faith Secondary School and is also progressing a building project for Temple Carrig School in Greystones under the national development plan.

St. David’s Holy Faith Secondary School is co-educational and a major building project to deliver state-of-the-art modern school accommodation for 750 pupils was provided at the school. Temple Carrig School in Greystones is also a co-educational school and was established in 2014. There is a project under way to provide accommodation at this school for 1,000 pupils, which is currently at stage 1, the preliminary design stage. A project to deliver four modular mainstream classrooms has also been approved. These classrooms are now on site and the project is nearing completion. In addition, there is the existing school in the adjacent Kilcoole school planning area, Coláiste Craobh Abhann. A major project to expand this school to 1,000 pupils has been approved and is currently at stage 2b. It is being delivered by the National Development Finance Agency.

I assure the Deputy that Department officials will continue to actively engage with schools and patrons to ensure there is appropriate provision for all students in Greystones for the 2024-2025 school year and into the future. Families can be assured that any necessary solution will be delivered so that all of the children in the Greystones school planning area will receive a first year place.

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