Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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54. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the actions taken since September 2024 to ensure that every child who is seeking a school place has one. [44970/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.

My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.

At a national level, Ireland has been experiencing growth in overall post primary enrolments and this is projected to continue in many parts of the country for the next number of years before beginning to decline. However, first year enrolments nationally are expected to have peaked in the 2023/24 school year and are now beginning to decline.

Nevertheless, the Department has been putting in place a number of measures to support parents and post-primary schools, with a view to helping the admissions process for 2025/26 run as smoothly as possible.

Firstly, the Department has written to all parents and guardians of children in sixth class with advice and guidance regarding the admissions process for post-primary for the 2025/26 school year. This letter advised parents to apply to multiple schools in areas where there is high demand and requested parents to take steps to avoid holding multiple places.

Secondly, the Department has improved the central Post-Primary On-line Database IT system that schools use to register student enrolments. This is an important improvement and is available to assist schools to manage the enrolment process and provide real-time notification to schools where a new student has accepted a school place in more than one school. This will help identify duplicate enrolments at a very early stage.

Furthermore, the successful data-sharing arrangements that were implemented for the 2024/25 admissions process in areas of enrolment pressure will be put in place again for the 2025/26 process. It is expected that, as in previous years, the data sharing will provide confidence that there is sufficient school place availability in the majority of areas. However, if a shortfall of places is identified in an area, the Department will work with schools to put the necessary solutions in place.

As the Deputy may be aware, the Educational Welfare Services of the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, is the statutory agency that can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school place for their child. The local service is delivered through the national network of Educational Welfare Officers. Contact details are available on Tusla’s website.

My Department continues to proactively plan for school place needs, using the most up to date data. Information on current and projected future population, and the impact of future residential development in each town, are all considered as part of this planning process. Engagement with school patrons is another important component of the Department’s planning process.

I want to assure the Deputy that my Department will continue to work to ensure a school place for every child across the country.