Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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177. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children that travel outside Donabate, County Dublin, to attend secondary school; the number of children that travel into Donabate to attend secondary school there over the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20661/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The information is not readily available in the format requested by the Deputy. However, the following information can be provided in relation to this matter.

As the Deputy will 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 and uses a Geographical Information System, using data from a range of sources, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise.

There is one post-primary school in the Donabate school planning area. Donabate Community College is a 1,000 pupil capacity post-primary school established in 2008, and has a 2018/2019 school year enrolment in the region of 760 pupils. At post-primary level, the average intake pattern in the Donabate school planning area over the last three years was some 90%. This suggests that a proportion of pupils who attended primary school in the Donabate school planning area did not attend post-primary school in the area in those years.

The Deputy might wish to note that such movement between school planning areas in relation to attendance at primary or post-primary schools is not unusual. A range of factors including parental choice, ethos, language, school location and commuting patterns can influence intake patterns.