Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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273. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is confident that there will be enough school places in Portmarnock, County Dublin, based on the current population plus the projected population growth in the years 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028. [10309/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It is an absolute priority to ensure that every child in the State has access to a school place and my Department is continually planning for and investing in existing and new schools to ensure that this is the case. Enrolment pressures can be driven by duplications of applications, applications from outside an area, and school of choice factors.

Since 2020, my department has invested over €1.3 billion in school infrastructure in Dublin. This significant capital investment includes new a state of the art, modern school accommodation for 1,000 pupils at Malahide Portmarnock ETSS, a regional solution to serve the Malahide_Nevinstown and Portmarnock School Planning Areas. Phase 1 has been delivered and Phase 2 is currently at Stage 4 of delivery. In addition, there is a major building project for Portmarnock Community School, currently at Stage 3 tender, to provide a new replacement school building for LTPE 1000 and SEN. At primary level new 16 mainstream classroom schools for Malahide Portmarnock ETNS is at Stage 2b.

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 beginning to decline from next year. At primary level, there is generally good capacity across the country, although there are some areas under continuing demographic pressures.

My Department is aware of post primary enrolment pressures in Portmarnock for the 2025/26 school year and, in addition to the capital investment already outlined, has put in place a number of measures to support post-primary schools in managing and effectively coordinating their admissions processes including continuing the data-sharing arrangements with schools in areas of enrolment pressure.

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 have been 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.

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 every child across the country, including in Portmarnock School Planning area, has a school place in 2025/26 and beyond.