Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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171. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the application by An Foras Pátrúnachta for a multidenominational Gaelscoil to serve the greater Drumcondra-Marino area in Dublin 1 was unsuccessful; if an appeal can be made in this regard and if he will reconsider this decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14330/16]

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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217. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a Gaelscoil for the northside of Dublin in order to meet demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14580/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 171 and 217 together.

Since 2011 new schools are generally only established in areas of demographic growth. My Department uses a Geographical Information System to identify the areas under increased demographic pressure nationwide. The system uses data from the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and information from my own Department's databases. With this information, nationwide demographic exercises are carried out to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary levels.

When it is decided that a new school is required to meet demographic needs in an area, the Department runs a separate patronage process to decide who will operate the school. It is open to all patrons and prospective patrons to apply for patronage of the school under this process and the level of parental preference for each patron is key to decisions in relation to the outcome of the process.

With regard to the decision on the patronage of the new school which will open this September to serve the Drumcondra/Marino Dublin 1 area, my Department assessed the applications received from the prospective patrons, including examining the parental preferences received in the applications to ensure they represented children living within the school planning area which will be served by this school, and prepared a report for the consideration of the New Schools Establishment Group (NSEG) who then submitted their report with recommendations to me for consideration and final decision. The patronage assessment report which is published on my Department website, while indicating substantial support for an Irish medium school, reflects nearly twice as many valid preferences for an Educate Together school in this area.

I accepted the recommendation of the NSEG and the patronage of the new school remains as announced. The NSEG did note the strong level of demand for Irish medium education in the area referred to by the Deputies and recommended that this should be kept under ongoing review in the context of future demographic exercises.

My Department is focused on ensuring that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in that area. My officials are keeping the changing demographics in the Drumcondra/Marino/Dublin 1 area under review to take into account updated child benefit data and to take into account the impact of ongoing and planned capacity increases in this and adjacent school planning areas.

For the Deputies' information my Department has received a letter of appeal from An Foras Pátrúnachta and a direct reply will issue shortly.