Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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447. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of single sex girls' schools, in tabular form. [16576/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Please find attached requested data, single sex post-primary girls schools.

The data was collated from the post-primary school lists for academic year 2024-2025 which can be found at the link below.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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448. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of Gaelscoileanna there are, and where they are based, in tabular form. [16578/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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449. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of Gaelcholáistí there are, and where they are based, in tabular form. [16579/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 448 and 449 together.

Please find attached requested information.Please note that data is complied from the preliminary data for 2024-25 which can be found at the link below. Gaelscoileanna are those schools with an Irish classification of "all subject through Irish" with Gaelcholaiste having an Irish Classification of "all pupils taught all subjects through Irish"

www.gov.ie/en/collection/63363b-data-on-individual-schools/.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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450. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of Catholic primary schools that have changed patronage to a multi-denominational school since 2000. [16580/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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451. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of Church of Ireland primary schools that have changed patronage to a multi-denominational school since 2000. [16581/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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452. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary schools in total that have moved from religious patronage to multi-denominational patronage. [16582/25]

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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453. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of post-primary schools in total that have moved from religious patronage to multi-denominational patronage. [16583/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 450, 451, 452 and 453 together.

There are 172 primary schools with a multi-denominational or inter-denominational ethos.

This includes 32 multi-denominational primary schools operating where previously there was denominational provision only and which are catering for diversity by providing multi-denominational options for parents where previously there were none. (This figure relates to 2013 onwards and includes schools which transferred patronage and/or changed ethos to multi-denominational and schools established under the patronage divesting process.)

20 of the 32 schools involved a transfer of patronage, of which 14 involved a transfer from a Catholic patron and 2 involved a transfer from a Church of Ireland patron.

For historical reasons, most primary schools are State-aided parish schools, with the local Bishop as patron, although this pattern is changing. At present, 88.3% of primary schools have a Catholic ethos. 5.5% have a multi-denominational ethos. The remaining 6.2% of primary schools have a religious ethos other than Catholic, mainly Church of Ireland. It is recognised that more diverse provision is required to cater for our changing society.

The Programme for Government commits to seeking “to increase choice for parents by ensuring that families can access both multi/non-denominational and faith-based education”.

The Schools Recon?guration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of school communities, aims to facilitate more availability of multi-denominational schools across the country.

Under the Education Act 1998, the legal responsibility for transferring patronage rests with the current school patron in the first instance. A school patron may write to the Minister in relation to transfer of patronage under Section 8 of the Education Act 1998 and request that the patron register is amended accordingly.

When a school transfers from the patronage of one patron to another, the school remains open with the same roll number and operating from the same school property. All state-funded primary schools follow a common national curriculum and are subject to the same Department rules and regulations.

I recognise the importance of increasing choice for parents and I intend to launch a nationwide survey of primary school communities shortly. This will give my Department a greater picture of parental preferences to enable it to plan into the future.

The survey will ask parents for their preferences on important aspects of school provision and choice, including the future patronage and ethos of their local school; their preference for whether their local school should be a single-sex school or a co-educational school, and their preference for the primary language of educational provision in their school.

It is intended that school staff and Board of Management members will also have an opportunity to complete a survey.

At post-primary level, 48.6% of students are enrolled in multi-denominational or inter-denominational schools, 47.6% are enrolled in schools with a Catholic ethos and 2.9% are enrolled in schools with a Church of Ireland ethos (the remaining 0.9% is accounted for by post-primary schools with an ethos other than Catholic, Church of Ireland, inter-denominational or multi-denominational).