John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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99. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the need for new national or secondary schools in the Charlestown and Meakstown areas of Dublin 11 has been examined or assessed. [19541/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. For school planning purposes Meakstown/Charlestown is located in the Finglas East-Ballymun-Dublin 11 school planning area, in which there are currently 9 primary schools.

As the Deputy will be aware, I recently announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next 4 years (2019 to 2022). This announcement follows nationwide, demographic exercises carried out by my Department into the future need for primary and post-primary schools across the country.

In addition to the new schools announced, there may be a need for further school accommodation in other areas in the future which can be addressed through either planned capacity increases in existing schools or additional accommodation or extensions to existing schools.

I have highlighted that the requirement for new schools will be kept under on-going review and in particular would have regard for the increased roll-out of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040.