Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before I give the Deputy the straight reply on behalf of the Minister for Education, both the Deputy and I are in neighbouring constituencies. We do not represent areas that are too different from each other. I am in my 15th year as an elected representative and every year, school places have become an issue and this will continue. Despite seeing ten new schools opening in my constituency during those 15 years, there is still pressure on places. When I see 1,500 new homes built in my local electoral area, on which I served for seven years, I know there will be forward pressure. Indeed I wrote to the Minister for Education as a constituency TD yesterday.

Since 2018 and to the end of October 2023, a total of €145 million has been invested in school infrastructure in County Wicklow. This significant capital investment includes a recently delivered major building project to expand St. David’s Secondary School in Greystones. State-of-the-art, modern school accommodation for 750 pupils was provided at this school.

The Department is currently progressing a major building project for Temple Carrig School in Greystones, which I visited on Saturday, under the national development plan. Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones was opened in 2014. I attended the opening and I think the Deputy attended as well before her political career. There is a project underway to provide accommodation at this school for 1,000 pupils, which is currently at stage 1, preliminary design stage. A project for four modular mainstream classrooms has also been approved. These classrooms are now on site and the project is completed.

In line with the Department's demographic projections of post-primary school place requirements, there has been a continued growth in enrolments throughout many school planning areas in County Wicklow. In response, the Department is providing further 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, tender stage. The permanent building project will deliver a new 1,000-pupil post-primary school with accommodation, including four classrooms, for children with special educational needs. The project is being delivered under the Department’s design and build programme and is currently at tender stage. The invitation to tender issued in April 2023 as part of a bundle of projects issued to the Department's framework of design and build contractors. The tender process currently takes approximately eight to 12 months. Tender returns have been received and are currently being evaluated. Once a contractor has been appointed, it is anticipated that construction will commence shortly thereafter. In addition to the above projects, there is also the existing school in the adjacent Kilcoole school planning area - Coláiste Craobh Abhann - for which there is a major project approved to expand it to 1,000 pupils. This project is currently at stage 2b and is being delivered by the National Development Finance Agency.

The annual enrolment process for new junior infants at primary and new first years at post-primary is a very large-scale operation that is transacted at close to 4,000 schools across the country involving some 140,000 pupils. In the context of post-primary enrolment pressures in Greystones, the Department of Education is aware of the acute pressures laid out by the Deputy tonight and on two if not three previous occasions in this Chamber. A critical next step for the Department is to establish the actual number of additional first year places as the Deputy outlined. In that context, schools in a number of areas of enrolment pressure, including Greystones, have been requested to share data. This data has been received by Department officials and is currently being analysed with a view to establishing the actual requirement for places. Preliminary assessments indicate that duplication of applications and applications from outside the local area are contributing to enrolment pressures in the town.

The Department is working to clarify the actual requirement for additional school places and to identify particular further capacity requirements for 2024 and forthcoming years. The Department is currently engaging with schools and patrons to put required solutions in place beyond those that are already in train.

Engagement is also taking place with patrons and schools with regard to school place needs more broadly across the county. This close engagement continues. I can assure the Deputy on behalf of the Minister that Department of Education officials will continue to engage actively with schools and patrons to ensure that there is appropriate provision for all students in Greystones for the forthcoming 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.

See this speech in context