Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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I very much appreciate the Minister's attendance and it demonstrates her commitment to this debate. The school development area in my constituency is known as Killester Raheny Clontarf. People familiar with north Dublin know the borders as the Malahide Road, the coast and the Oscar Traynor and Kilbarrack roads. Within the area there are approximately seven second level schools, all of which have religious ethos, four of which are all-girls schools and one of which is an all-boys school. There are two that are mixed, with one having a Church of Ireland ethos and the other having a Catholic ethos.

Parents in my constituency are saying there is not a school for them if the children want to attend an Educate Together school, for example, or if they want to choose a non-denominational or multi-denominational school for their children. They do not have one. On the border, on the Malahide Road, there are two other second level schools in Ardscoil Rís and Chanel College, Coolock, which are also all-boys schools. The Minister knows the Department has not given sanction to any new single-gender school since 1998 and it is not the Department's policy to do so. The Department has indicated to the campaign group that the group should engage with each of these schools to see if they are willing, able or at a point in their development of changing their ethos. That is unlikely to happen and it puts the onus back on volunteers to engage with schools, who have enough on their plates without having such a major conversation in the short term.

To be honest, I have had this conversation with the Minister's predecessor about another part of my constituency. The initial response from the Department was that the demographics did not justify a new school, but that is where we ended up and it is why there is a second level Educate Together school now in the northern fringe area, as sanctioned by the Department. Will the Department sanction and recognise a new second level Educate Together school in this area? The area's demographics have changed and there are a large number of new young families in the area. My office has never had the number of requests for school places at second level as it has had in recent months. It is now a major issue locally for families trying to access second level places.

Seven schools are listed in the area and many of them are difficult to get into in the first instance. One of them has a wider remit or mandate in that it is of Church of Ireland ethos and it accepts children from right across the north side of the city. Living within the catchment area does not necessarily give access to that school and it has a wider remit. We are therefore reduced to six schools, with four being all-girls schools and one being an all-boys school.

We must allow a continuum of education with a multi-denominational ethos and parents in the area are very anxious to move to a position where such a choice can be available to them. They should not be forced to send their children to a second level school under an ethos with which they are not comfortable. All these schools correctly say they do everything possible to facilitate children of all backgrounds, but what is best for the children I speak to is a new school with a multi-denominational ethos. It would afford them the choice of having a continuum of education in the manner that best fits their own belief system.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position of second level schools in Killester, Raheny and Clontarf. To plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas, as the Deputy knows, and uses a geographical information system, using data from a range of sources, including child benefit and school enrolment data, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise and where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary level.

Where data indicate clearly that additional provision is required at post-primary level, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through either one, or a combination of, the following options. They are utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools, extending the capacity of a school or schools or provision of a new school or schools in the area in question. A patronage process is run after it has been decided, based on demographic analysis, that a new school is required. This patronage process is open to all patron bodies and prospective patrons. The online patronage process system, OPPS, has been developed by my Department to provide objective information to parents that will allow them to make an informed choice about their preferred model of patronage as well as language of instruction, whether Irish or English, of new schools.

Parental preferences, as well as other considerations, such as the extent of diversity of provision in an area, including Irish-medium provision, are key to the decision-making process and to whether at post-primary level a school would take the form of an Irish-medium Gaelcholáiste or whether, if English-medium, the school would include an Irish-medium unit or aonad. Most new post-primary schools must have a student enrolment capacity of between 600 and 1,000 students. A lower threshold of 400 students may apply to Gaelcholáisti, having regard to the alternative of establishing an aonad within a school.

As the Deputy states, there are currently seven post-primary schools serving the Killester Raheny Clontarf school planning area. The Department's most recent projections do not indicate significant increases in school place requirements at post-primary level in this area to the extent that a new school would be required in the short term. Nevertheless, I want to be clear in saying that my Department will continue to work to ensure there is sufficient capacity in the area to meet school place demand and will keep the requirements in the area, as with all other school planning areas, under significant review, as we do on an ongoing basis. Additionally, my Department will continue to liaise with Dublin City Council in respect of its review of the Dublin city development plan with a view to identifying any potential long-term school accommodation requirements.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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I thank the Minister and I appreciate her reply. Again, every area is different. She has said there are seven post-primary schools serving the Killester Raheny Clontarf area, but as I said, four are all-girls schools and one is of a Church of Ireland ethos and has a remit wider than the immediate area for the entirety of north Dublin. It is a particular case.

I am encouraged by the Minister's suggestion of an ongoing review. With the campaign group I will look to get as much data and information as possible in engaging with the Department. As I stated, I had a discussion in the Seanad at the time with the Minister's predecessor about the necessity for a multi-denominational school around the northern fringe.

At that time, I received a similar answer to this, which was quite negative. However, the school is now up and running. I expect the same thing to happen in this instance. I suggest to the Minister that she reconsider this request in light of the changing demographic of the area, the young families that have come into it and the fact that for those not interested in a Catholic second-level education there is no option. There are seven schools listed. Six of them are Catholic schools and the remaining one is non-Catholic but it has a wider remit across the entirety of north Dublin such that a student is not entitled to enrolment in that school on the basis that he or she lives in the immediate catchment area.

I will continue to raise this with the Minister. The campaign group and I will be compiling data to engage with the Department. This is a growing area with young families whose children are going to need second level placements. A relatively new denominational primary school is moving into Killester in September and a number of Educate Together primary schools have also opened in the area in the past number of years. It is unfair to allow children to attend a multi-denominational primary school only for them to be told in sixth class that they have no opportunity to continue in multi-denominational education up to leaving certificate level, that they have to move into a denominational situation. That is unfair to those children and their families.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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We are over time. I ask the Minister to conclude as briefly as possible.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate we are over time. I thank the Deputy. I would like to clarify that the demographics at post-primary level in the Raheny-Clontarf-Killester school planning area are expected to peak in 2028, with a gradual decline out to 2040. The 2020 enrolment is 3,789 across seven schools, with an expected peak in enrolment at 4,087 in 2028. It is important to note that the patronage process is run after it has been decided that a new school is warranted or required. The patronage process is open to all patron bodies and prospective patrons. Parental preferences for each patron and in regard to the language of instruction at the school from parents of children who reside in the relevant school planning area, together with the extensive diversity currently available in the area, are key to the decision-making process.

An online patronage process system has been developed by the Department to provide objective information to all parents, which allows them to make an informed choice about their preferred model of patronage for their child's education. The patronage process for new schools is overseen by an external independent advisory group, namely, the new schools establishment group.

I appreciate the points made by the Deputy in terms of those with whom he is working. As I said in my earlier response, I am happy to keep this under review. We do that constantly across all of our school planning areas. We work with the information as it comes on stream, either through the local authorities in terms of development plans or whatever the case might be. We are very proactive in this space. I am happy to confirm again that we keep everything under review.