John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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458. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of spaces available for incoming first year students in mainstream secondary schools within the school planning area of Galway city; if the schools have sufficient capacity for all sixth class pupils currently enrolled in mainstream primary schools within the school planning area of Galway city; if her Department has given consideration to increasing capacity of secondary school places within the Galway city planning area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65020/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, 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.

My department uses data from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, enrolments and information on new residential developments, to plan for school place needs.

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. While my department is aware of enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to note that enrolment pressures can be driven by duplications of applications, applications from outside an area, and school of choice factors. Notwithstanding the above, in some areas, demographic pressures and other factors are driving a requirement for additional school places.

Furthermore, the data sharing arrangements that were in place for the 2025/26 admissions process have been put in place again for the 2026/27 admissions process in school planning areas that are experiencing enrolment pressures, including Galway City. The admissions data provided by schools will allow the department to analyse duplicate applications as there can be significant overlap in areas.

As per my departments analysis of Galway City school planning area for the 2024/25 academic year, there were more first year places available than 6th class children and 3.86% of first year places were unfilled.

The Deputy will appreciate that there can often be significant overlap across areas and schools, and the nature of the admissions processes is quite complex. As a result, there can be multiple iterations, where applicants may accept a place but subsequently be offered and accept a place at a second school, freeing up capacity at the first school accepted. In that context, is may take some time for my department to fully review the availability of post-primary school places in Galway City constituency while the admissions process continues to progress.

My department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.

Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

The availability of places is a matter for each individual school in the context of their Admissions legislation. Enrolment data for previous school years is available on the Department website. Enrolment data for the 2024/25 school year is available on the Departments website at www.gov.ie.

I can assure the Deputy that my department will continue to keep the school place requirements in Galway City school planning area, as with other areas across the country, under review.