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

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. I will take this opportunity to outline the Department's perspective on this matter. Scoil Shéamais Naofa is a Catholic mixed all-Irish primary school under the patronage of the Bishop of Galway. In September 2020, the school had an enrolment of 259 pupils. I understand that enrolments in the school have fallen by 9% in the past five years. The school currently has a principal, ten mainstream teachers, three special education teachers, a part-time special education teacher and one temporary mainstream teacher. The Senator said that the standard of education in the school is good.

The current accommodation comprises ten mainstream classrooms, a general purpose room, library, principal's office, general office, staffroom and other ancillary accommodation. The Senator will be aware that, to plan for school provision and to analyse the relevant demographic data, the Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. It uses a geographical information system and data from a range of sources, including child benefit and school enrolments, to identify where the pressure for school places throughout the country will arise and where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary levels. The most recent analysis undertaken by the Department projects that more than 60% of enrolments in the 314 school planning areas at primary level are stable or decreasing for the period to 2024.Conversely, some 90% of the school planning areas at post-primary level are anticipated to have increased enrolments for the period to 2027. The level of demand across school planning areas with an increasing net requirement ranges from small to medium increases, which are likely to be accommodated by existing schools, to significant increases that may require additional provision. Where data indicate that additional provision is needed, the Department considers a number of options, including utilising existing capacity, extending a school's capacity, providing a new school or a combination thereof.

Scoil Shéamais Naofa is one of 36 primary schools in the Galway city school planning area. Following the most recent demographic exercise carried out by the Department, the demand for primary school places in that area is set to fall by at least 200 by 2024. The Senator will be aware that significant devolved funding was granted to Scoil Shéamais Naofa between 2009 and 2012 for the provision of permanent accommodation on its existing site, including two additional mainstream classrooms and two resource rooms, to meet its long-term accommodation needs. In 2016, the Department received an application from the school for a new 16-classroom school on a greenfield site. I understand that the school authority was informed at the time that the Department did not see the need for a new school building, as the level of accommodation available to the school was sufficient to meet its long-term needs and those of the school planning area. I understand that this remains the Department's view.

The Senator mentioned one of the reasons for which the school was seeking a replacement school building on a greenfield site, namely, traffic management issues. Road safety measures on a public road outside a school's vested site such as road signage, traffic calming measures and so on are matters for the relevant local authority.