Provision of a new secondary school for the Malahide and Portmarnock areas

​QUESTION NO:  436

DÁIL QUESTION addressed to the Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Richard Bruton)
by Deputy Darragh O'Brien
for WRITTEN ANSWER on 20/06/2017  

 
 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 these proposed schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
  
REPLY.


The Patron of the new Malahide/Portmarnock post-primary school (Educate Together) has decided for operational reasons that it is in the best interests of the school to postpone its opening to September 2018.  My Department has been working in close co-operation with Educate Together to facilitate the opening of the school and will continue to do so with a view to its opening in suitable interim accommodation in September 2018. 

Where a requirement for additional post-primary schools has been identified, details including proposed timelines related to the opening of the schools are made known by a Ministerial announcement. However, patrons may decide for different operational reasons in a particular year that it is in the best interests of a new post-primary school to defer its opening.  In some cases there may be a timing issue, where many parents will have already committed to other second level schools in the area ahead of the announcement of the new school.