Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 741: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position of pupils from a school (details supplied) in County Wexford who are excluded from the catchment area for a school; the action which has been taken following the meetings and protests for the schools and families who have a long standing tradition of sending their children to school there and now will have no adequate choice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10216/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The post-primary school to which the Deputy refers is heavily oversubscribed as a result of the enrolment of a significant number of pupils from outside its catchment area. The cumulative effect of such enrolment over a number of years impacts negatively on pupils from within a catchment area who are entitled to a place in a school. This invariably impacts negatively on the school or schools to which such pupils should rightly attend and in which considerable capital investment has been made for this purpose. It is a matter for 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, the Department of Education and Science decided that a number of named pupils from outside the catchment area to which the Deputy refers would be allowed to enrol in the post primary school in question for the 2005-06 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 2005 that the 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.

The primary schools to which the Deputy refers are within the Kilmuckridge, Carnew and Arklow catchment areas, which have a total of five post-primary schools between them. An examination of enrolment trends in the schools has been carried out by the Department's school planning section for the purposes of ensuring there is sufficient accommodation to cater for demand for pupil places. The examination revealed that enrolments in all five schools have dropped, in some cases quite dramatically, in the past ten years. I am satisfied that there are adequate places for the enrolment of the pupils in schools in their own post-primary centres. I am satisfied that adequate notice has been given to the particular post-primary school concerned to ensure it implements an appropriate enrolment policy for the 2006-07 school year in the best interests of its pupils. Indeed, confirmation has been received from the school that it is effecting such an enrolment policy. In such circumstances, the Department's position on this matter remains unchanged.