James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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13. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the provision of a new secondary school in Wexford town; if the patronage is decided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29927/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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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.

The demographic analysis for the Wexford Town school planning area does not indicate a requirement for a new post-primary school for the area.  My Department is satisfied that the existing five post-primary schools in the Wexford town school planning area can cater for the students who require a school place in the area.

The Wexford town school planning area is an area experiencing demographic growth and the demographic data for this school planning area and the adjacent school planning areas 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.