Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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718. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the up-to-date evidence-based rationale with statistics for moving a school (details supplied) in the Blanchardstown school area to the Mulhuddart Tyrrelstown school area. [12123/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department has a robust forward planning process which considers population and enrolment data. Analysis of the Dublin 15 area indicates that there is sufficient post primary school capacity to cater for the existing population. One relevant indicator is that there are more first year places available in the existing post primary schools than there are sixth class pupils living in Dublin 15.

This evidence-based analysis of where pupils are living and where they attend school has established that there is currently a lot of movement of Dublin 15 pupils out of the local communities in which they live to attend post primary school. This is most acute in the Mulhuddart_Tyrellstown_D15 School Planning Area (SPA), where enrolment numbers are significantly lower than the school-going population. There are currently over a thousand post primary school pupils leaving the SPA each day to attend school in other parts of Dublin 15.

Ériu Community College was established in 2020 in an interim location in Dublin 15. In response to the identified deficit of local capacity, the department has determined that Hollywoodrath is the most appropriate permanent location for this school. This will provide much needed capacity in the Mulhuddart_Tyrellstown_D15 SPA, while freeing up capacity in other schools in Dublin 15, assisting in addressing the imbalance of post primary school capacity across the area.

Furthermore, department officials have an ongoing engagement with Fingal County Council in respect to planned new residential developments. The school place demand associated with this new houses is also factored in and, based on available information, the projected demand for post primary school places in Dublin 15 can be catered for by the existing schools, allowing for the capacity of Ériu Community College to expand to 1,000 pupils on it's permanent site, the capacity of Castleknock Community College expanding to 1,500 pupils and Hansfield ETSS & Edmund Rice College enrolling to meet their capacity of 1,000 pupils.

There is also scope of a number of the existing post primary schools in Dublin 15 to expand their capacity in the future if required.