Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to school places in Scoil Mhuire Allenwood, County Kildare. The Deputy is aware that Scoil Mhuire Allenwood is a coeducational primary school with a Catholic ethos under the patronage of the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. The school had an enrolment in September 2025 of 263 pupils. This represents an increase of 7% in the past five years.

I can confirm that Scoil Mhuire Allenwood recently submitted an application for temporary accommodation under my Department's additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme. This application is currently under assessment by the officials in the Department. I know the Deputy wants a concrete answer today, but I can tell him that the application is certainly under consideration.

I am pleased to confirm that the Department approved funding in 2022 to provide three mainstream classrooms, including two replacement classrooms, two special education classrooms and the reconfiguration of four undersized rooms to create two larger mainstream classrooms. This project is currently devolved to the school authority for delivery and approval was given for this ASA project to progress to stage 2b, planning, in November 2024. The Department now awaits a post-planning developed design report from the school for review. The school also received funding in 2022 to purchase a modular classroom to accommodate the 11th mainstream post. In 2024, funding was approved to repurpose a mainstream classroom to accommodate the opening of a special educational needs class, pending delivery of the permanent build project.

Scoil Mhuire Allenwood is located in the Prosperous-Clane school planning area. The Department's projections of primary school place requirements for that area indicate that enrolments at primary level peaked in 2019 and are decreasing, year on year. Given the general downward direction of overall enrolments in the area, the Department's focus for the assessment of such additional accommodation applications will be to analyse the extent to which enrolments at this school and neighbouring schools are serving the local area in the first instance. This will identify if some of the pressures on local capacity are arising from the enrolment of pupils from outside the local area where there may be other school provision opportunities available to them. That is the information I have been provided with. I am sure the Deputy will have more to say.

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