Written answers

Thursday, 28 September 2017

Department of Education and Skills

Schools Designation

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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101. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 265 of 20 September 2017, if he will address the specific case concerning the schools referenced; and if the feeder schools have been designated by his department. [41075/17]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard 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 which facilitates the orderly planning of school provision and accommodation needs. The primary school referred to by the Deputy is located in the Crosshaven school planning area. The post-primary school referred to by the Deputy is located in the Carrigaline school planning area.

All new schools established since 2011 to meet demographic demand are required to enrol children from within the designated school planning area which the school was established to serve which, in this case, is the Carrigaline school planning area. This does not preclude schools from enrolling pupils from outside of the designated school planning area, rather it reflects the need to accommodate in the first instance the demographic for which the school was established.

Separately, some post-primary schools also give a level of priority to applicants who have attended a particular primary school (known as a feeder school).  Such schools are designated by the relevant post-primary school, not by my Department. In fact, in the case of the post-primary school referred to by the Deputy, a number of the primary schools designated as feeder schools in its enrolment policy are not located in the Carrigaline school planning area.

It is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998 and in this regard, the criteria to be applied by schools in determining feeder schools are a matter for schools themselves.

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