Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 878: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the lack of school places in Lucan; and the action being taken to address this situation. [10164/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am conscious of the fact that Lucan is one of the fastest growing areas in the Country. In light of this, the Department has expanded capacity significantly at both primary and post primary level to cater for existing and newly emerging demands for pupil places.

There are eleven primary schools in the Lucan area including two new state of the art multi-denominational schools and a new Gaelscoil which commenced operation in September 2005. These developments together with a number of extensions to existing schools, the provision of temporary accommodation and the re-organisation of one school to enable the enrolment of an additional two junior infant classes has increased capacity significantly in the area. In addition, Scoil Mhuire, Archbishop Ryan JNS, St Thomas NS and Scoil Aine were recently given approval to commence the architectural planning process for major extensions and are to receive design team appointments shortly. Through a combination of these measures, the School Planning Section of the Department is satisfied that, between them, the schools have adequate accommodation to cater for current demand. The Department continues to monitor school needs in the Lucan area.

With regard to post primary capacity specifically, a new school for Coláiste Cois Life was recently completed. This will provide places for 600 pupils, some 400 additional places relative to its then existing capacity.

In addition to this, capacity at Coláiste Phádraig was increased by 300 pupil places with the completion of a major extension project at that school. A further extension project at St. Joseph's College was completed in 2004. This is deemed sufficient to meet demand from pupils in its catchment area. In addition, Lucan Community College is to receive a design team appointment shortly to provide additional accommodation to increase its overall capacity to 1000 pupils.

The Deputy will probably be aware that there is considerable vacant capacity at post primary level in areas adjacent to Lucan. Given that it is practice, particularly in Dublin, for post-primary students to travel some distance to attend a post-primary school, it is not unreasonable that the Department should seek to optimise the use of existing surplus capacity at post-primary schools in the general vicinity of Lucan as part of its strategy to address any shortfall for post- primary places that may emerge.

The Department will continue to monitor the situation in Lucan to ensure that any future emerging needs are addressed in a timely manner.