Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I hope to be able to clarify the current position regarding Sacred Heart Secondary School in Clonakilty, which is an all-girls school under the patronage of Catholic Education, an Irish Schools Trust, CEIST. The enrolment at the school in September 2020 was 524 pupils and the school has a staffing of nearly 40 whole-time equivalent teachers. As the Senator is aware, Sacred Heart Secondary School is included in the Department's capital programme being delivered as part of the national development plan, NDP. The agreed long-term projected enrolment, LTPE, for the school is 600 pupils, with one SEN, special educational needs, base class, as the Senator mentioned, and it is critical that this goes ahead.

In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. It also uses a geographical information system, GIS, which uses data from a range of sources, including child benefit data from the Department of Social Protection and the Department's school enrolment databases, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. The Department has strengthened the process this year through specific initiatives, for example, enhanced engagement with local authorities in regard to the information on residential development incorporated in the analysis process, and additional engagement with patron bodies in regard to their local knowledge on school place requirements. Education and training boards, diocesan offices and national patron bodies, such as Educate Together and An Foras Pátrúnachta, can also be an important source of local knowledge. This will add to information already provided to the Department by local authorities or individual schools, and by utilising the information gleaned from schools under the national inventory of school capacity completed by individual schools last year as part of the primary online database and post-primary online database returns process.

In a standard year, addressing the increased demands for school places, while challenging, is manageable, generally through utilisation of existing spare capacity within schools, rental, temporary accommodation or other short-term measures pending the delivery of permanent accommodation.

With regard to the major building project for Sacred Heart Secondary School, my Department carried out a strategic assessment review of the proposed project in order to consider various options on how best to progress the project and to deliver the necessary accommodation to meet the long-term projected enrolment of 600 pupils. Following completion of the strategic assessment review, a number of options have been identified on how best the project can be progressed and this will form part of the project brief for the appointed design team to explore and develop.

The Department is now in the process of amending the brief formulation documents for the project to include the recommended options from the strategic assessment review, which will allow the project to be ready to progress to architectural planning.The Senator will also be glad know that agreement has been reached with the school patron, namely, Catholic Education An Irish Schools' Trust, CEIST, to manage the delivery of this project on a devolved basis under a service level agreement. That is progress and will allow the Department to progress this project into the architectural planning process as quickly as possible. The school authority and the principal also have been advised of the current position.

Obviously, it is not possible at this early stage to outline the likely completion date of the project. I wish to advise the Senator, however, that updates regarding all building projects are provided on my Department's website and this information is updated on a regular basis. I will also bring this matter to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and to the building and planning unit within the Department to see if it can be expedited as soon as possible.