Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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260. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will engage with parents and secondary schools in Swords, County Dublin, on the shortage of secondary school places in the town; if additional modular accommodation and teaching staff will be provided for schools with significant waiting lists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36118/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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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 (GIS). The GIS uses data from a range of sources, including Child Benefit Data from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Department's own school enrolment databases, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise.

The process has been strengthened this year through three specific initiatives:

1. Enhanced engagement with local authorities in relation to the information on residential development incorporated in the analysis process;

2. Additional engagement with patron bodies in relation to their local knowledge on school place requirements. Education and Training Boards, Diocesan offices and national patron bodies such as Educate Together, An Foras Pátrúnachta etc. can also be an important source of local knowledge. This will add to information also provided to the Department by local authorities or individual schools.

3. Utilising the information gleaned from schools under the national inventory of school capacity completed by individual schools last year as part of POD, P-POD returns process.

Where data indicates that additional provision is required at primary or post primary level, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through either one, or a combination of, the following:

- Utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools,

- Extending the capacity of a school or schools,

- Provision of a new school or schools.

As the Deputy will be aware, since April 2018, the Government announced the establishment of 45 new schools over the 4 year period 2019 to 2022. This included a new post-primary school for the Swords School Planning Area – Swords Community College, which opened in 2018/19 under the patronage of Dublin Dun Laoghaire Education & Training Board.

In addition, major building projects are planned, are in train or completed in a number of post primary schools in the Swords School Planning Area, including:

- Swords Community College – a new permanent school building for this school, catering for 1,000 pupils was completed in August 2020. The school had an enrolment of 166 pupils in 2019/20.

- St. Finian’s Community College, Swords – architectural planning has commenced to construct a major building project at the school, which when completed, will provide capacity for 1,000 pupils. The project has been devolved to Dublin Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board (DDLETB) for delivery. A number of significant issues have unfortunately arisen, including delays in obtaining statutory consents from the local authority and delays in the finalisation of the detailed design process for the project as it was originally approved. Based on the report provided by DDLETB, it was agreed at a recent meeting between the Department and DDLETB that this project should be redesigned. The first step in this new plan is the execution of a Service Level Agreement between the Department and DDLETB and this process in under way. Thereafter, DDLETB will procure a Design Team to design the buildings, obtain the necessary statutory planning permissions and move the project onward to construction in due course.

- Loreto Secondary School, Swords – my Department proposes expanding this school to provide capacity for 1,000 pupils. The project brief is currently being devised and when completed, the architectural planning process for the project can commence. My Department recently approved 4 additional temporary classrooms to the school to cater for its immediate needs.

- Fingal Community College – my Department has agreed the expansion of this school to cater for 1,000 pupils and is currently finalising a project brief for this proposed project under our Additional Accommodation Scheme.

Similar to the process adopted for September 2020 readiness, my Department will be engaging further with patron bodies shortly in advance of identifying specific September 2021 capacity pressure points priorities which will necessitate specific action.

In a ‘normal’ year, addressing the increase demands for school places, whilst challenging, is manageable - generally through utilisation of existing spare capacity within schools, rental, temporary accommodation or other short term measures pending the delivery of permanent accommodation.