Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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358. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department has plans for an Irish language secondary school in the Swords, Malahide area of County Dublin (details supplied). [2899/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that new schools are established by my Department on the basis of identified demographic demand in an area. 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, including Child Benefit and school enrolment data, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise and where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary level.

The most recent projections for the Swords and Malahide_Nevinstown school planning areas do not indicate a requirement for the establishment of a new post primary school.

Major new residential developments in a school planning area have the potential to alter demand in that area. In that regard, as part of the demographic exercises, my Department engages with each of the local authorities to obtain the up-to-date information on significant new residential development in each area. This is necessary to ensure that schools infrastructure planning is keeping pace with demographic changes.

Where demographic data indicates that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may, be provided through:

- Utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools,

- Extending the capacity of a school or schools,

- Provision of a new school or schools.

A patronage process is run after it has been decided, based on demographic analysis, that a new school is required. The New Schools Establishment Group (NSEG) is an external independent advisory group which was set up in 2011 to advise the Minister on the patronage of new schools. The patronage process is open to all patron bodies and prospective patrons.

An Online Patronage Process System (OPPS) provides objective information to parents in the relevant school planning areas to assist them in making an informed choice about their preferred model of patronage and language of instruction, i.e. Irish or English for a new school. Parental preferences from parents of children who reside in the school planning areas concerned, together with other consideration such as the extent of diversity of provision currently available in these areas (including Irish-medium provision), are key to decisions in relation to the outcome of the process and to whether at post-primary level a school would take the form of an Irish-medium Gaelcholáiste or whether, if English-medium, the school would include an Irish-medium unit or “Aonad”.

Following their consideration of my Department’s assessment reports, the NSEG submits a report with recommendations to me for consideration and final decision. The assessment reports and the NSEG recommendations for all such patronage processes are made available on my Department's website.

The other mechanism to establish an Irish-medium post-primary school is for a case to be made by the relevant school patron for an existing Aonad to transition to a standalone Gaelcholáiste. Where an Aonad does not currently exist, a patron of a post-primary school, including those in Swords and Malahide areas, may make an application to the Department for the establishment of an Aonad in the post-primary school under its patronage.

My Department will continue to work to ensure that there is sufficient capacity in the area to meet school place demand and will keep the requirements in Swords and Malahide_Nevinstown, as with all other school planning areas, under review.