Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Under the Education Act 1998, the question of enrolment policy in individual schools, including the setting of catchment areas, is the responsibility of the board of management on behalf of the school patron. The selection process, and the enrolment policy on which it is based, must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

The Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in a particular area. In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data in a way that takes account of local and regional variations, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. School planning areas have evolved over time but, in broad terms, take account of traditional post-primary enrolment patterns, natural boundaries, census small areas and other local conditions. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that it is my Department’s intention to publish the parameters of all 314 school planning areas in the coming weeks on gov.ie.

The Department 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 activity, is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department’s projections of school place requirements.

The school under reference by the Deputy is in the Galway city school planning area, where there are a total of 11 post-primary schools. In line with the Department's demographic projections of post-primary school place requirements, there has been a continued growth in enrolments in the Galway city school planning area. In response, the Department is providing further significant additional post-primary capacity, including two new 1,000-pupil school buildings for St. Joseph's College - the Bish - and Coláiste Mhuire Máthair. Both of these projects will provide enhanced accommodation for existing schools which will provide a total of 500 additional school places above the current enrolment levels. The St. Joseph's project is at stage 2b, which is the developed design and lodgement of planning permission, while the Coláiste Mhuire Máthair is at stage 1, which is the preliminary design stage. In addition, there are a number of further school building projects at other post-primary schools across the city. Nevertheless, my Department is aware of pressures for school places at certain post-primary schools, pending the delivery of these very significant school building projects.

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