Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 679: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the pupils from schools (details supplied) in County Wexford who are excluded from the catchment area; the work which has been done following the meeting for the schools and families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18954/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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For the purposes of post-primary education provision, the country is divided into catchment areas, each of which has its own post-primary education centre. Catchment boundaries were determined following consultation with local educational interests and the intention was that certain primary schools would feed exclusively into each centre. My Department provides accommodation to meet the educational needs of an area on this basis.

Allowing pupils from outside a catchment area to enrol in a particular school can impact negatively on those who reside within the area and who are entitled as of right to a place. It invariably also impacts negatively on the school or schools to which these pupils should rightly attend and in which considerable capital investment has been made for this purpose. It is a matter for all school authorities in the context of their enrolment policies to limit enrolment to within their catchment area to ensure that this situation does not arise.

The schools to which the Deputy refers are within the Kilmuckridge, Carnew and Arklow catchment areas. These catchment areas have a total of five post-primary schools between them. An examination of enrolment trends in these schools has been carried out by the school planning section for the purposes of ensuring that there is sufficient accommodation to cater for demand for pupil places. This examination revealed that enrolments in all five schools have dropped, in some cases quite dramatically, in the past ten years. In the circumstances, the school planning section is satisfied that there is ample accommodation for the pupils in question to attend post-primary schools in their own catchment areas.