Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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457. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is working with secondary schools in Galway city to ensure that all students in sixth class will have a school place in September 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2809/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It is an absolute priority of my Department to ensure that every child in the State has access to a school place and we are continually investing in existing and new schools to ensure that this is the case.

My Department has put in place a number of measures to support post-primary schools, including in the Galway City School Planning Area, in managing and effectively coordinating their admissions processes. These include:

• 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.
• 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.
• The successful data-sharing arrangements that were implemented for the 2024/25 admissions process in areas of enrolment pressure have been put in place again for the 2025/26 process, including for Galway City. 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. My Department is liaising closely with schools to ensure that this data is provided as soon as possible, and once it is received the actual requirement for places can be established. However, if a shortfall of places is identified in an area, the Department will work with schools to put the necessary solutions in place.