Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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498. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the difficulties faced by parents in securing school places for children if they reside in a certain area (details supplied) in County Dublin; the options for these parents when students are refused access to a certain school and other schools in this area; her plans to assist these parents. [41562/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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It is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998. The enrolment policy must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants.

My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In this regard, I can advise that as part of my announcement last week on the provision of 10 new post-primary schools to open in 2017 and 2018, two new schools will be opening in the areas referred to by the Deputy in 2017.

These two new schools in Swords and in Malahide/Portmarnock will cater for the demographic demand emerging in these areas.

Parents can choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

Section 29 of the Education Act, 1998 provides for an appeal by a parent or guardian to the Secretary General of my Department, or in the case of an Educational Training Board (ETB) school to the ETB in the first instance, where a Board of Management of a school, or a person acting on behalf of the Board, refuses to enrol a student in a school, expels a student or suspends a student for 20 or more days in any school year.

The Educational Welfare Service of the Child and Family Agency (EWS) is the statutory agency which can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school place for their child. The EWS can be contacted at 01-8738700.

The Education (Admission to Schools) Bill, which was published in April of this year, provides an over-arching framework to ensure that how schools decide on who is enrolled and who is refused a place in schools is more structured, fair and transparent.