Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 59: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the manner and method in which the post-primary pupil database in her Department is operated and indicate for each of the years 2004, 2005, and 2006 the number of foreign students recorded on that database and their percentage of the total of post-primary pupils; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33434/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The post-primary pupils database was first implemented for the 1991-92 school year and it holds basic information on each pupil attending a post-primary school. In October of each year, all post-primary schools make a return to my Department detailing their enrolments for the year. This is known as the October return and it is used to populate the Department's post-primary pupils' database. In the school year 2006-07, the returns from 732 schools provided details on 333,718 pupils nationwide. The October return gives a snapshot of school enrolments by programme level, junior certificate, leaving certificate and class year, as at 30 September each year. Detailed information on the subject choice of each student is also collected.

A good overview of the type of information collected can be gained by looking at the second level education section of my Department's annual statistical report. Much of the data in that section of the annual report is taken directly from the post-primary pupils' database.

The in-house processing of the October returns and the provision of a helpdesk facility for schools is carried out by the post-primary pupils' data section of my Department. Processing of the October returns commences in October of each year and is completed around May. The Department uses the information supplied for a number of tasks, including payment of per capita grants to voluntary secondary schools and determination of the provisional teacher allocations for all sectors. An extract of the data is provided each year to the State Examinations Commission to facilitate the organisation and co-ordination of the junior certificate and leaving certificate examinations.

Among the data collected on each student is a country of origin designation. This designation defaults to Ireland, unless otherwise indicated in the schools October return. Based on this designation, I can inform the Deputy that the number of pupils whose country of origin was returned as other than Ireland was 12,037 pupils in the school year 2004-05; 13,791 pupils in the school year 2005-06; and 17,003 pupils in the school year 2006-07. It can be seen, therefore, that within a three-year period, an extra 5,000 students, other than Irish students, entered secondary school. The figure is a lot higher in primary schools.

The overall enrolment figures for all post-primary schools in each of these years were 305,808 in 2004-05; 303,031 in 2005-06; and 303,527 in 2006-07. We anticipate school numbers in post-primary schools will begin to increase again next September, but they have been declining for the past ten years or so.

The percentages requested by the Deputy for the number of children whose country of origin was other than Ireland are, therefore, 3.9% in 2004-05; 4.6% in 2005-06; and 5.6% in 2006-07. Of the many countries represented in each of these years, those from the United Kingdom consistently dominate in top spot with the United States also consistently featured in the top five countries of origin.