Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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100. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children currently awaiting a place in a secondary school; her Department’s plans to ensure that every child who finished sixth class in 2025 is able to progress to secondary school in September; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40176/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority of mine.

Since 2020, my department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan, involving the completion of over 1,400 school building projects. Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. A recent Government decision has approved €210m supplementary capital funding for my department which brings the total capital allocation for 2025 for my department to €1.6 billion.

Primary school enrolments at national level have been in decline for a number of years and this downward demographic trend is also now apparent at first year post primary level. There are, however continued pressures in some areas where there is high demand with continued population growth and housing development driving the need for additional school places.

In that context my Department has put in place a number of measures to support post-primary schools in managing and coordinating their admissions processes including enhancements to the IT systems for registering enrolments so that duplicate acceptances of admission offers are effectively known in real-time at school level, and continuing the data-sharing arrangements with schools in areas of enrolment pressure. The sharing of this data has been very effective in the identification and addressing of school place requirements. The Department’s priority is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, meet local school place requirements.

The annual enrolment process for new Junior Infants at primary and new First Years at post-primary is a very large-scale operation that is transacted at close to 4,000 schools across the country, involving some 140,000 pupils. My department works with schools, patrons, and management bodies to ensure that there are sufficient school places available to meet the needs of children. In order to assist with the enrolment of children without a school place, the Department shares information on available capacity with the Tusla's Education Welfare Service. 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.

While a very small number of applicants may not yet have received an offer of a school place for 2025/2026, families can be assured that all children who require a school place will be provided with one.

I recently announced the launch of a pilot Single Application System for admission to first year at post-primary schools for the 2026/27 school year in five towns including Athenry, Co Galway, experiencing enrolment pressures. The pilot marks a significant step towards fulfilling the Programme for Government commitment to introduce a nationwide common application system and enable further improvements in the identification of pupils seeking school places.