Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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447. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the capacity for new first year students in each of the secondary schools in County Westmeath in tabular form. [9914/21]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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449. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the capacity for new first year students in each of the secondary schools in County Longford in tabular form. [9916/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 447 and 449 together.

Under the provisions of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, all schools are required to have drafted new admissions policies, which have been approved by the patron, following consultation with staff and parents of children who are attending the school. The newly revised school’s admissions policy is published on the schools website.

All schools have published an admissions notice outlining the timelines of the admissions process, this must be published a minimum of one week prior to the admissions process taking place. The notice must, in relation to the school year concerned, provide the number of school places available in the intake group, in the case of a boarding school, the number of residential and the number of non-residential places available and in the case of a school with a special class the number of school places available in the special class concerned.

My Department is not aware of any capacity issues at post primary level in the areas referred to by the Deputy.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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448. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students that will be seeking a first year place in secondary school in County Westmeath. [9915/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, it is not possible for my Department to confirm the number of students that will be seeking to enroll in any given post primary school(s) as the question of enrolment in individual schools is the responsibility of the Board of Management on behalf of the school patron and my Department does not hold information in this regard. Parents are entitled to apply to enroll their child in any school and where a school has places available, applications for enrolment should be accepted. When the number of applications exceeds the number of places available at the school, the selection criteria as included in the school’s published admission policy will apply.

I would however, like to draw the Deputy's attention to my Department’s website, www.education.ie where data on primary and post primary schools across the country is available under the “Find a School” function. Schools can be searched for using a number of different criteria including, inter alia, School Level, Geographical Area and Ethos and key information on the relevant schools, including enrolments from the 2019/20 academic year, is displayed in the results. A map of the relevant schools is provided as part of the "Find a School" functionality.

Full lists of all schools at primary or post primary level can also be downloaded from the website and these provide further data on individual schools. These lists can be filtered by local authority and/or county which may be helpful.

Information in respect of the 2020/21 academic year is due to be published shortly.

Notwithstanding the effect of parental choice of school and transfer patterns in and out of any given area, in respect of enrolments to post primary schools in County Westmeath for the 2021/2022 academic year, the cohort of pupils in fifth class in primary schools in the county in 2019/20 is relevant, pending publication of the 2020/21 data. I can confirm that there were 1,439 such pupils.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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450. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students that will be seeking a first year place in secondary school in County Longford. [9917/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, it is not possible for my Department to confirm the number of students that will be seeking to enroll in any given post primary school(s) as the question of enrolment in individual schools is the responsibility of the Board of Management on behalf of the school patron and my Department does not hold information in this regard. Parents are entitled to apply to enroll their child in any school and where a school has places available, applications for enrolment should be accepted. When the number of applications exceeds the number of places available at the school, the selection criteria as included in the school’s published admission policy will apply.

I would however, like to draw the Deputy's attention to my Department’s website, www.education.ie where data on primary and post primary schools across the country is available under the “Find a School” function. Schools can be searched for using a number of different criteria including, inter alia, School Level, Geographical Area and Ethos and key information on the relevant schools, including enrolments from the 2019/20 academic year, is displayed in the results. A map of the relevant schools is provided as part of the "Find a School" functionality.

Full lists of all schools at primary or post primary level can also be downloaded from the website and these provide further data on individual schools. These lists can be filtered by local authority and/or county which may be helpful.

Information in respect of the 2020/21 academic year is due to be published shortly.

Notwithstanding the effect of parental choice of school and transfer patterns in and out of any given area, in respect of enrolments to post primary schools in County Longford for the 2021/2022 academic year, the cohort of pupils in fifth class in primary schools in the county in 2019/20 is relevant, pending publication of the 2020/21 data. I can confirm that there were 717 such pupils.