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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the provision of a new secondary school for the Malahide and Portmarnock areas of County Dublin as announced in November 2015; if he has identified locations for the proposed schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY The building project for Malahide Portmarnock Educate Together Secondary School is being delivered under my Department's Design & Build programme. This delivery programme uses a professional external Project Management team to progress the project through the stages of architectural planning, tendering and construction. The procurement process for a bundle of projects has commenced, with the publication of a contract notice to determine a shortlist of interested contractors. The new school building for the school referred to by the Deputy is part of this bundle of projects. The procurement process (and the associated tendering to short-listed contractors) for this bundle of projects will be ongoing during Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. It is anticipated that construction of this school building project will commence in Q2 2020. The first phase is planned to facilitate occupation of the new permanent school building in the 2020/2021 school year. The site is located in Drinan, Swords. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures he is taking to resolve the shortage of primary school places in Skerries, County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System, using data from a range of sources, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary level. The Government announced in April 2018, plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the four year period 2019 to 2022, including 5 new primary schools and 3 new post-primary schools in the North County Dublin/Fingal area. In addition, 4 new primary and 7 new post-primary schools were established in recent years in the area. The requirement for new schools will be kept under on-going review and in particular will have regard for the increased rollout of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040. My Department is aware of the enrolment issues in the Skerries area for 2020. In this context, my Department has been in direct contact with the Patron of Skerries Community College in respect of the capacity in the school. Skerries Community College has expressed a willingness to increase its long-term projected enrolment to 1,000 pupils. As a result a permanent extension consisting of 3 general classrooms, 3 SET/Offices, Science Laboratory and prep area, Art room and toilets has been approved by my Department. Pending the delivery of the permanent extension my Department has also approved interim temporary accommodation consisting of 3 mainstream classrooms with toilets along with the converting an existing space to create a Science laboratory. This accommodation will be in place for September 2020. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures he is taking to resolve the shortage of secondary school places in Skerries, County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System, using data from a range of sources, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary level. Major new residential developments in a school planning area have the potential to alter demand in that area. In that regard, as part of the demographic exercises, my Department engages with each of the local authorities to obtain the up-to-date data on significant new residential development in each area. This is necessary to ensure that schools infrastructure planning is keeping pace with demographic changes as there is a constantly evolving picture with planned new residential development. Where demographic data indicates that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may, depending on the circumstances, be provided through either one, or a combination of, the following:
As the Deputy will be aware, in April 2018 the Government announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next four years (2019 to 2022). While the announcement did not include a new post-primary school for the Skerries school planning area, the requirement for new schools will be kept under on-going review and in particular will have regard for the increased rollout of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040. My Department is aware of the enrolment issues in the Skerries area for 2020. In this context, my Department has been in direct contact with the Patron of Skerries Community College in respect of the capacity in the school. Skerries Community College has expressed a willingness to increase its long-term projected enrolment to 1,000 pupils. As a result a permanent extension consisting of 3 general classrooms, 3 SET/Offices, Science Laboratory and prep area, Art room and toilets has been approved by my Department. Pending the delivery of the permanent extension my Department has also approved interim temporary accommodation consisting of 3 mainstream classrooms with toilets along with the converting an existing space to create a Science laboratory. The Patron of Skerries Community College is currently tendering for the interim accommodation approved. It is expected to have all interim accommodation in place for September 2020. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the provision of school transport to pupils living in the Ballyboughal area that will be attending a school (details supplied) which will open on the Rathbeale Road in September 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. (Details Supplied) the new Swords community school
REPLY School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the 2018/2019 school year over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres at a cost of over €200m in 2018. The purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. Children are generally eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school having regard to language and ethos. Parents/guardians of a child (children) wishing to avail of school transport services, for the first time, are required to apply on-line on Bus Eireann’s website at www.buseireann.ie . Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department, will contact all applicants regarding their eligibility for school transport: - where there is a transport service available for eligible children, Bus Éireann will continue to liaise with eligible families regarding invoicing, payments, ticketing etc. - where there is no transport service available for eligible children, Bus Éireann will forward the applicants’ details to the Department, which will then contact families directly regarding the Remote Area Grant. The closing date for school transport applications for 2020/21 school year is the 24th April 2020. It is important to note that an application for school transport must be made before a Remote Area Grant may be considered. Please apply on-line at www.buseireann.ie |
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All Parlamientary Questions I make about schools in Dublin Fingal and their answers can be viewed in this section Archives
December 2019
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