Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Norma Foley, who is otherwise engaged.

I thank the Senator for raising the matter, which she has raised persistently over recent months, as it provides me with the opportunity to outline steps the Department of Education is taking to support post-primary schools in managing and co-ordinating their enrolment processes for September 2025, including in the Dublin West area. The provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post-primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs, is an absolute priority for the Department of Education.

Under the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, parents have the right to choose which school to apply to, and where the school has places available, the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available, a selection process will be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice. The Act requires schools to clearly set out their selection criteria in their admission policies. Schools have discretion in respect of their admission criteria and how they are applied. The criteria to be applied by schools and the order of priority are a matter for the schools themselves.

The Department has been putting in place a number of measures to support post-primary schools, including in Dublin West, in managing and effectively co-ordinating their admissions processes. These include the following. The Department has improved the central post-primary online database IT system that schools use to register student enrolments. This is an important improvement and is available to assist schools to manage the enrolment process and provide real-time notification to schools where a new student has accepted a school place in more than one school. This will help identify duplicate enrolments at a very early stage. The Department has written to all parents and guardians of children in sixth class with advice and guidance regarding the admissions process for post-primary for the 2025-26 school year. This letter advised parents to apply to multiple schools in areas where there is high demand and requested parents to take steps to avoid holding multiple places. The successful data-sharing arrangements that were implemented for the 2024-25 admissions process in areas of enrolment pressure will be put in place again for 2025-26, including for areas in Dublin. It is expected that, as in previous years, the data sharing will provide confidence that there is sufficient school place availability in the majority of areas. However, if a shortfall of places is identified in an area, the Department will work with schools to put the necessary solutions in place.

With respect to a common applications system, there are complexities in the admissions process that can be challenging to manage, relating to factors such as individual school admission policies and locations where there is a lot of inward and outward movement. Nevertheless, the Department has been working to identify how learnings from the common applications system in Limerick and Ennis might be applied in other areas in future years with a view to improving the process for families and schools.

At a national level, Ireland has experienced growth in overall post-primary enrolments, and this is projected to continue in many parts of the country over the next number of years before beginning to decline. However, first year enrolments nationally are expected to have already peaked in the 2023-24 school year. The Department’s forward-planning analysis takes account of local factors, in particular, residential development activity, when determining capacity required in an area.

The Department’s projections for post-primary school place requirements in Dublin West indicate some continued increase in 2026. In the context of projected overall population growth, it is anticipated there will be increasing school place requirements in the medium to long term. There are, however, a number of school building projects recently delivered or in train which are delivering significant additional further capacity across Dublin West. Projects currently delivered on site or in train include new school buildings at Adamstown Community College, Kingswood Community College, Coláiste Pobail Fóla and Griffeen Community College, as well as major projects at Holy Family Community School, Tallaght Community School, St. Joseph's College and Lucan Community College.

I will come back in on a supplementary reply but I hope this offers some path forward for the Senator.