Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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41. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to increase provision of second level education in the eastern part of County Meath, in particular, the Duleek area. [31746/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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To assist in identifying where additional school accommodation is needed, my Department uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to examine where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. The GIS uses data from a range of sources, including the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and school enrolment returns. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic analyses at primary and post-primary level to determine where additional school accommodation is needed.

In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. Duleek is located in the Drogheda school planning area in which there are 27 primary schools and 7 post-primary schools.

As the Deputy may be aware, a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school, Ballymakenny College, opened in the Drogheda school planning area in 2014. Two new post-primary schools also opened in County Meath, Colaiste na Mí, Navan in 2013 and De Lacy, College, Ashbourne, in 2014, both of which will cater for 1,000 pupils each. In addition, Beaufort College, Navan will be expanding to 870 pupils and a building project for this extension is currently under construction.

My Department is keeping all school planning areas under review to take account of updated child benefit data, enrolment data and also the impact of existing and planned capacity increases in the Drogheda school planning area and adjoining school planning areas.