Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this question on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, who is out of the country. I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides me with an opportunity to outline the position on school capacity reviews in County Galway, including Ballinasloe, and the use of the ArcGIS system to assist the REALTs in their work of sourcing school places.

As the Senator will be aware, regional educational and language teams, REALTs, were established as part of the Department of Education's response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the war in Ukraine. Part of the REALTs' role was to assist in finding school places for Ukrainian children. This was subsequently extended to providing for international protection applicants seeking school placement. Over 17,500 Ukrainian students have been enrolled in our schools to date.This is a testament to the fantastic work done across school communities and by REALT. Critical to this success has been the use of existing school capacity and the Department of Education has worked closely with the REALT to support and co-ordinate a strategic approach in this respect. As part of this strategic response, data available to the Department on school capacity was provided to the REALT. The Department further supplemented the data with additional information collected from schools via online surveys. Ultimately, the capacity of a school is a matter for that school's board of management and patron, taking into account specific circumstances. At post-primary level, capacity is particularly complex as class groupings, subject options, and timetabling are all relevant. However, there are certain indicators of capacity which are useful in identifying a school's likely ability to facilitate additional enrolments and such indicators include data on current and historic enrolments; reported available classrooms; information regarding current or recent school building projects; and schools' self-reported capacity to enroll additional students in certain class or year groups. The most recent information currently available relates to the 2022-2023 school year and the Department of Education will be refreshing this over the coming months, including as the recent 2022-2024 enrolment returns are finalised.

The Senator will appreciate that, while specific capacity at schools is fluid and can have certain complexities and nuances, in combination, the available indicators of capacity give a good sense of school-place pressures in an area. From the information provided by schools and the Department earlier in the year, there appear to be available school places and classrooms at primary level generally across County Galway, including at schools in Ballinasloe town and across the Ballinasloe school planning area. Capacity at post-primary level is more constrained as it is generally across the country in the context of peaking post-primary demographics. A strategic and co-ordinated approach to managing enrolments and maximising existing capacity, both at individual school level and across a town or area, is important to ensure school accommodation capacity is used in the most effective way. The Department continues to monitor school place requirements across the country, including in Ballinasloe and in the wider county. It undertakes demographic exercises and analyses residential development activity in order to anticipate school place requirements in the future. It also engages closely with school authorities and patrons to identify and resolve any school place pressures. This collaboration with patrons will be informed by data on schools' applications for admission.

As the Senator may be aware, the admission process for many primary schools will be starting in the first quarter of next year, which means that engagement will be ongoing over the coming months. The Department is currently progressing a number of building projects in Ballinasloe under the national development plan. The most significant project for planned additional capacity is a new 16-classroom school building for Scoil an Chroí Naofa, which will also provide three classrooms for pupils with special educational needs. This project is currently at stage 2B and has recently received a grant of planning permission. The Department is also engaging with the patrons of Ardscoil Mhuire and St. Joseph's College in Ballinasloe regarding their proposed amalgamation and with a view to considering their overall accommodation needs. However, I would underline that ensuring sufficient school capacity is, and will continue to be, a priority for the Department. The school place needs in Ballinasloe and across County Galway, as with all other areas, will continue to be kept under review for the 2024, 2025, and subsequent school years.