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

I thank the Senator for raising the matter of school places in Moycullen. It gives me an opportunity to set out my Department's position on school place requirements in the area. The Senator may be aware that in order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data in a way that takes account of the significant local and regional variations in demographic trends and enrolment projections, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. As the Senator correctly pointed out, Moycullen is in the Spiddal-Inverin school planning area.

In most places, school planning areas were based on traditional school catchment areas where all primary schools were assigned to a post-primary feeder area which was typically a population centre or town containing one or more post-primary schools. The school planning areas were developed for use with my Department's geographic information system in 2008 and, with the introduction of small areas in census 2011, these areas were amended to align with census small areas. The current school planning areas take account not only of local groupings of schools but also of natural boundaries, census small areas and other local conditions.

My Department's anticipation of post-primary school place requirements within each school planning area is based on the level of enrolment at each standard class in primary schools and the historical transfer patterns between primary and post-primary schools. Information supplied by the local authorities in respect of current or planned residential development activity is also considered. Where data indicate that school place requirements are increasing, the availability of existing or planned unused capacity within existing schools is considered in the first instance. If sufficient unused capacity is not available, provision may be made by extending the capacity of an existing school or by providing a new school.

An analysis of the transfer patterns from primary schools in the wider Moycullen area to post-primary schools indicates that the majority of such pupils enrol in post-primary schools in the Galway city school planning area, which is immediately adjacent to the Spiddal-Inverin school planning area. The Department has identified a significant volume of current or planned unused capacity in schools in Galway city. This includes a number of major capital projects which are providing additional capacity. This capacity across schools in Galway city is expected to be sufficient to address projected emerging requirements in that school planning area as well as to facilitate a continuation of the enrolment patterns from primary schools in the Moycullen area. In that context, my Department has determined that there is currently no identified requirement for the establishment of a new post-primary school in Moycullen. Nevertheless, it will continue to keep school place requirements across the country, including in the Spiddal-Inverin and Galway city school planning areas, under review. Furthermore, my officials will continue to engage with officials in Galway County Council and Galway City Council in the context of their development plans.

It may be interesting for the Senator to note that according to the demographics about which he inquired, there is an anticipated population increase of approximately 18,655 for the general Galway area between 2021 and 2028. The 2016 population of Moycullen, as the Senator is probably aware, was 1,704. There is an anticipated growth of 350 by 2028. There are, according to Galway County Council, 272 housing units with planning permission in the Moycullen area but they are not yet complete. It is not expected that the full number of these will be delivered in the short term and their impact on school place requirements should be considered in the context of a distinct downward trend in demographics at planning level which will roll forward to post-primary level over the medium term.