Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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394. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, in view of the preliminary census results for Fingal county showing above trend population growth, he plans to review the current and future educational provision in Fingal county, in particular in Dublin 15; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24547/16]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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416. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department has analysed the provision of primary school places in an area (details supplied) in view of the construction of large new housing estates; if his Department has been in touch with Fingal County Council regarding reserving a new site for a primary school in the draft Fingal development plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25126/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 394 and 416 together.

For school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 geographic areas known as school planning areas. These defined areas facilitate the orderly planning of school provision and accommodation needs. In identifying the requirement for additional school places in a school planning area, my Department uses a Geographical Information System to identify the areas under increased demographic pressure nationwide. The GIS uses data from the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and my Department's own databases. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic analyses to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary level.

Following the 2015 demographic analyses, four new primary schools and nine new post-primary schools were announced to open in 2017 and 2018 to cater for increased demographic needs in these areas. This includes a new post-primary school which will open in 2017 to serve the Carpenterstown and Castleknock school planning areas in Dublin 15, which will provide an additional 1,000 post-primary pupil places, supplementing provision in these areas.

As with other school planning areas nationwide, the demographic data for the areas outlined by the Deputy are being kept under ongoing review by my Department to take account of updated child benefit data and updated enrolment data and also the impact of ongoing and planned capacity increases in these, and adjoining, school planning areas.

My Department liaises with Local Authorities in relation to their County Development Plans and Local Area Plans and makes submissions in relation to potential educational impacts arising from projected increases in population included in a draft Plan. If a need for an additional school or schools is identified, my Department requests the Local Authority to zone a suitable area appropriately for educational provision, as part of this process. In this context, my Department made a submission to Fingal County Council in April this year, as part of their draft Development Plan consultation phase, which indicated that if the projected population targets from 2017 to 2023 published in the draft Plan materialises and could not be accommodated in existing schools, this would result in the need for additional schools. My Department's submission set out the importance of ensuring that sufficient lands in the areas where significant additional population is likely to arise, is zoned educational, to ensure that educational infrastructure can be put in place the meet the needs of these new communities.