Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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16. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to any exercise by his Department to assess the future educational building needs in Dublin city area, at primary, secondary and third level, in the context of the consolidation of the DIT on the Grangegorman campus and the future disposal of the DIT properties in Kevin Street, Aungier Street, Cathal Brugha Street, Mountjoy Square, Chatham Row and Bolton Street; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29957/16]

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. A number of these school planning areas cover Dublin City.  In Dublin City, as elsewhere, my Department is using a Geographical Information System to identify the areas under increased demographic pressure and requirements for additional school places. The demographic data used is kept under ongoing review to take account of updated child benefit data, updated enrolment data, and also the impact of ongoing and planned capacity increases in these, and adjoining, school planning areas. 

With regard to school site acquisitions, decisions in relation to the specific locations for new school accommodation in the Dublin City area are determined in the context of the overall portfolio of sites acquired, the feasibility of development of individual sites, and the timelines for acquisition, planning permission and development.  Due to commercial sensitivities, it is not possible to provide details of specific site acquisitions under consideration by the Department.

With regard to DIT, my Department works closely with the Grangegorman Development Agency and DIT in relation to all aspects of the campus development at Grangegorman, including issues related to the proposed disposal of DIT properties.