Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue on Fermoy Educate Together National School in Cork East. I am answering this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley. I believe the Deputy has already pre-empted some of the response.

The Deputy most certainly is aware that Fermoy Educate Together National School is an ordinary mixed school in the town of Fermoy, County Cork. I take on board the point and the fact he said that it was built in 1931 and that the Deputy started teaching there a few years ago. The school had an enrolment in September 2022 of 52 pupils and in September 2023 of 85 pupils. The school is located in the Fermoy school planning area and there are currently 19 primary schools and three post-primary schools in this school planning area.

By way of background, Fermoy was one of the areas surveyed in 2012-13 under the patronage divesting process where there was sufficient parental demand supporting changes in school patronage. The areas surveyed were areas where demographics were not growing and therefore it was unlikely that a new multidenominational school would be established for demographic reasons. The clear policy on patronage divesting was to use existing educational infrastructure to facilitate provision of diversity in areas where there was no demographic imperative to establish new schools. The reason for this approach was the imperative - equally valid now as it was then - to focus the schools capital programme on the provision of additional mainstream and special educational school places at both primary and post-primary levels to ensure every pupil can access a school place.

As part of the process of identifying a suitable accommodation solution which would facilitate the establishment of the school, the Department liaised with Cork Education and Training Board. To facilitate the establishment of the new school, the ETB agreed to the co-location of the Educate Together school at the former technical school in Fermoy, together with some of the ETB's further education and training services.

Prior to the establishment of the new school in 2018 under the patronage divesting process, the Department and Educate Together as school patron agreed that given the accommodation available at the property and the need for the ETB to accommodate some further education and training services from the property, the school would be established as a four-classroom school and that the school would maintain this configuration in the accommodation in the former technical school unless an existing school building was freed up for use in the area. As part of this engagement, the Department outlined to the school patron the importance of enrolments being managed within the available accommodation in a sustainable way, and this would be communicated to the school board of management so that parents could be fully informed and to manage expectations. However, the school has taken the decision to accept a significant increase in enrolments, from 52 in the 2022-2023 school year to 85 in the 2023-2024 school year.

The role of the Department is to ensure all schools in an area can, between them, cater to school place requirements in that area. The broader position in the Fermoy school planning area is that demographics at primary level are declining and will steadily decrease for the foreseeable future.

I wish to bring to the Deputy's attention that officials in the Department of Education have been engaging with the school patron, that is, Educate Together, in respect of the current and future needs of the school. I take on board what Deputy Stanton has said on the numbers and the overcrowding. A technical visit by the Department was undertaken recently, the results of which are informing current discussions with the patron. The patron has been in contact with the ETB around accommodation arrangements in the building. The Department will also continue to liaise with the school and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, regarding any requirements for accommodation for children with special educational needs in the Fermoy school planning area.

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