Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it affords me the opportunity to outline to the House the current position regarding school provision in Ashbourne.

As the Senator will be aware, in June of last year the Minister announced that 20 new primary schools and 20 new post-primary schools would be established over the next few years to meet our increased demographics. Of these new schools, two primary schools were to be established in Ashbourne, one in 2011 and another in 2012 and one post-primary school was to be established in Ashbourne in 2014. The need for additional primary school provision in Ashbourne was identified through detailed analysis earned out by the forward planning section of the Department, using both enrolment data and the demographic trends in the area.

Prior to September 2011, there were three primary schools in Ashbourne town, all under Catholic patronage. During 2010 and 2011, the Department had been examining the question of increasing the number of primary school places in Ashbourne to cater for the expected increase in enrolments. As part of that consideration the Department consulted with the patron of the three Catholic schools regarding extending the capacity of those schools. The patron indicated that following local consultation in Ashbourne the consensus was that the parish should not be involved in further primary school provision in the area.

The Department then put in place an application and patron selection process for the establishment of new schools to cater for increasing demographics in Ashbourne. Applications for patronage of the new schools were received from An Foras Pátrúnachta and from Educate Together, both of which are well established national patron bodies. Following consideration of these applications, approval was given for the commencement of a new gaelscoil which opened in September 2011 and a new Educate Together school which will open in September 2012. Both patron bodies proposed to establish multi-denominational schools in response to parental wishes. Given that all existing schools in the town were Catholic in ethos, the provision of multi-denominational schools would increase diversity and parental choice in the area and approval was given for the establishment of these new schools on that basis. With the commencement of the two new primary schools in Ashbourne, there will be capacity for at least seven junior infant classes across the five schools in Ashbourne for September 2012. Five of these junior infant classes will be provided in schools with a Catholic ethos and at least two will be provided in schools with a multi-denominational ethos. Apart from significantly increased capacity in the local primary schools, the parents in Ashbourne now have greater choice than ever before in the range of primary schools available to them for their children.