Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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608. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to extend the community national schools' government by Education and Training Boards Ireland, out of the pilot phase; and the number of these which will be Gaelscoileanna. [36492/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Community National Schools (CNSs) represent a new policy initiative approved by Government on a pilot basis to deal with increasing societal diversity and demand for greater choice in education provision at primary school level. There are currently a total of eleven CNSs, located in counties Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow.

The Community National Schools are currently under the interim patronage of the Minister for Education and Skills, while the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) for each school are patrons-designate. The arrangements for the transfer of patronage of the schools to the relevant ETB are currently being considered by my Department.

My Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises to determine where additional school accommodation is needed. Where new primary schools are needed, my Department runs an open patronage determination process to decide who will operate the schools. It is open to all patrons and prospective patrons, including ETBs, to apply under this process. As part of the process, applicant patrons must provide evidence of parental support, from within the area for which the Department has identified the need for the school, for the type of school and medium of instruction that they propose.

Details of the criteria for the establishment of new schools are available on my Department's website at