Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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204. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how he will meet the growing demand for school places in the Harold's Cross and Terenure areas, including current demand for primary school places, current demand for secular non-religious schools and the demand for secondary schools. [17075/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for a Partnership Government reflects the Government's objective of strengthening parental choice and further expanding diversity in our school system, specifically by increasing the number of non-denominational and multi-denominational schools with a view to reaching 400 by 2030.

In addition to the phased transfer of Catholic schools to new patrons already under way, this will require considering new ideas and new approaches to substantially accelerate the changes in school provision in order to achieve greater diversity. The Government is committed to working with all stakeholders to facilitate this process and I am progressing these matters as a priority.

Regarding the areas to which the Deputy refers, my Department is engaged with an existing school patron under the patronage divesting process in relation to a former school building which can be returned to use as a school under new patronage to serve the areas concerned and work is well advanced in this regard.

In relation to new schools required to meet demographic needs, my Department uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to identify where the pressure for school places will arise nationwide. The GIS uses data from the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and information from my Department's own databases.

The outcome of the latest demographic exercises, based on the GIS, was the announcement, in November 2015, of the establishment of four new primary schools and nine new post-primary schools to open in 2017 and 2018 to cater for increased demographic needs. These schools include a new primary school which will open in 2018 to serve the Dublin South City Centre areas of Dublin 2, 4 and 6 and will provide additional capacity. A new post-primary school will also open in 2018 to serve the areas of Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 8.

My Department is keeping the demographic data under ongoing review to take into account updated enrolment data, updated child benefit data and the impact of ongoing and planned expansion of capacity.