1518. Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty asked the Minister for Education and Youth the measures being taken to ensure adequate school places are available in the Rathcoole, Newcastle and wider South Dublin area in light of significant residential development, increasing demand for school places and existing capacity pressures in neighbouring schools; and whether consideration will be given to retaining the current teaching post in a school (details supplied) which provides education for families residing in IPAS accommodation and has established autism classes, in order to avoid large class amalgamations and maintain capacity for future enrolment growth. [63808/26]

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 for the Department.

As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System (or GIS) to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit Data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform the Department’s projections of school place requirements. Additional accommodation provision is made as necessary, where the existing capacity is insufficient for future needs.

In addition, an annual school capacity management process is undertaken by my Department, to ensure that sufficient school places are available to meet demand each year at both primary and post-primary level, including for children and young people with special educational needs.

This process involves ongoing analysis of enrolment trends, demographic data and projected intake at school planning area level, as well as direct engagement with schools, patrons and management bodies. Each school planning area is kept under review on an ongoing basis, with particular regard to projected pupil intake, existing school capacity and emerging enrolment pressures.

Where potential capacity pressures are identified, my Department engages directly with the relevant schools and patrons, including through data-sharing arrangements where appropriate, to better understand application patterns and overlapping demand. This supports timely interventions to ensure sufficient school places are available for the forthcoming school year.

The staffing arrangements include a provision whereby schools experiencing rapid increases in enrolment can apply for additional permanent mainstream posts, using projected enrolment. The school referred to by the Deputy has been allocated a post on this basis and has been advised that to retain the post, an enrolment of 141 is required on 30 September.

The staffing process also contains an appeals mechanism for schools to submit a staffing appeal to an independent Primary Staffing Appeals Board. One of the appeals criteria is aimed at schools that receive a projected enrolment post but do not meet the required enrolment on 30 September. Such schools may submit an appeal to the October meeting of the Primary Staffing Appeals Board. Information and application forms are available in Circular 0025/2026.

The major building project for the school referred to by the deputy will deliver new 16 classroom primary school and accommodation, including 4 classrooms for children with Special Educational Needs on their permanent site Off Coolamber Drive, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. This project will be delivered under my departments Design & Build programme. Planning permission for the project has been attained, and the next milestone will be to progress to tender stage.

My department continues to liaise with the school and its patron body in relation to interim accommodation pending delivery of the permanent school. The school has re-located from accommodation on a DDLETB owned site in Citywest to new modular accommodation on a site in Newcastle for the academic year 2025/26, which is located within its school planning area.

Earlier this year my department published the €7.55 billion NDP Sectoral Investment Plan for the Education and Youth Sectors for the period 2026 to 2030. This NDP Sectoral Plan involves a very strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard there will be a strong special education dimension to project rollout. The first tranche of 105 school building projects includes 80 large scale and Additional School Accommodation scheme projects. These projects were prioritised with a strong focus on maximising existing capacity and prioritising project rollout to meet the most urgent needs particularly to support special education needs provision.

I recognise that there are schools with important building projects that are not included in the first tranche of prioritised projects. As part of planning ahead for the next tranche of projects to progress to tender, the department-led prioritisation process will continue over the course of 2026 and 2027 to assess and evaluate the progression of individual projects through the design pipeline having regard to the continual need to maximise existing capacity and determine the prioritised needs going forward. This process will involve engagement with key stakeholders and will ultimately inform the next tranches of programme rollout to tender. My Department’s Planning and Building Unit will be consulting with stakeholders as part of the confirmation of further priority projects for rollout to tender in future tranches. This consultation included meetings with patrons and management bodies in June.