Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 389: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if the arrangements put in place in 2005 to allow out-of-catchment or disputed catchment pupils from certain schools in north Wexford to be enrolled in a school (details supplied) in County Wexford, will continue in place in 2006 and until additional secondary school accommodation is provided for north Wexford in Kilmuckridge and Gorey; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34758/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers is heavily oversubscribed as a result of a significant number of pupils enrolling from outside its catchment area. The development of this type of situation can impact negatively on pupils from within the catchment area and who are entitled, as of right, to a place in a particular school. It also invariably 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 areas to ensure that such situations do not arise.

As a once-off exceptional measure, my Department decided that a number of named pupils from outside the catchment area to which the Deputy refers would be allowed to enrol in the school in question for the 2005/2006 school year. This decision was taken because the pupils concerned had an expectation that they would be enrolling in the school and did not have sufficient notice to secure alternative placements.

It was made clear to the school authority in July of this year that this arrangement would apply for the 2005/06 school year only. It was made equally clear that the arrangement did not create a precedent and that it would not be repeated in subsequent years. I am satisfied that there are adequate places for the enrolment of the pupils in question in schools in their own post-primary centres. I am also satisfied that adequate notice has been given to the particular school concerned to ensure that it implements an appropriate enrolment policy for the 2006/07 school year in the best interests of its own pupils. In the circumstances, my Department's position in this matter remains unchanged.