2026-03-04

I welcome the fact the Minister of State from the Department of Education and Youth is here to take this Topical Issue. As the Minister of State knows, I represent Dublin Fingal East. It is a rapidly growing area, with house building in east Fingal, and all towns are growing rapidly. This is good and we need houses. With this come a lot of young families and pressure on local infrastructure. This is not a new issue that I am raising. I raised this in advance of the previous academic year and I have to raise it again now in advance of the next academic year. The issue is the lack of school places in junior infant classes in St. Marnock's National School, Portmarnock. I have had the same response from the Department to parliamentary questions and Topical Issues, which is that the Department is aware of enrolment pressures in Portmarnock and has put in place a number of measures to support the schools. Unfortunately, these have not manifested or worked and children this year were unable to secure places in local schools. This will only be compounded next year. I have real concerns about how the data the Department has is being examined. I have heard a number of times through parliamentary questions that first year enrolments nationally were expected to peak in the 2023-24 school year. However, this national level data does not apply to an area such as Fingal accurately because it is a growth area where houses have been built in recent years and continue to be built. The reality on the ground is very different. Last year primary schools only took children until a November birthday in first round offers and December birthdays in second round offers. This year children will need to be born in September 2021 or earlier to secure a place in their local school. This means children will have to be five before they start school in Portmarnock. We know the rules on the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme and provision for two years. We know the impact it has on parents having to stay in work, which predominantly falls on the mother. Ensuring children have to start at the age of five is disgraceful. According to the Department's demographic projections, peak demand in Portmarnock has not been reached. Despite this, construction of the new Malahide Portmarnock educate together national school was not selected to go to tender this year and has been delayed for at least four years. Eight months ago when Deputy McEntee was Minister for Education, I shared figures with her and it is important to do so again. In 2022, the census captured the under-five population in the area as numbering 602 children. These children would have been in the area by April 2022, which is the time of the previous census. Taking an even division of the ages from birth to four years, that would equal approximately 120 children requiring a junior infant place and a subsequent primary school place in each year from September 2022 to September 2026. However, since the previous census, several large housing developments have been built in the area, namely, Dún Sí, Skylark and Drumnigh Manor, which have increased the population greatly. The housing developments are, of course, welcome. However, they need to be paired with increased infrastructure and school places. To illustrate that point, I have worked out examples for the developments and the estimated expected number of children needing primary school placements for these estates alone. The Skylark development has 982 units proposed for development in the area, providing mainly three- and four-bedroom family units. Nationally, based on 2022 figures, 69% of households in Ireland are families. The Fingal county average for the number of children per family is 1.42, which is a conservative value based on anecdotal evidence in the Portmarnock area. Therefore, using these conservative estimates and the 982 units, it would be expected that there will be 962 children in that estate alone.

I thank the Deputy and welcome the opportunity to speak on St. Marnock's National School in Portmarnock, County Dublin. The Deputy has been liaising with the Department in relation to this issue. The school is under the patronage of the Archdiocese of Dublin and is in the Portmarnock school planning area. Last September, the school had an enrolment of 638 pupils and 26 mainstream teachers, three special class teachers, one learning support teacher, one administrative deputy principal, seven special education tutors and one shared special education tuition post. To plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, the Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a geographical information system using data from a range of sources, including the Central Statistics Office, CSO, census data, child benefit and school enrolment data, to identify where the pressures for school places across the country will arise and where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary levels. The Department produces demographic projections based primarily on the child benefit data, which is made available from the Department of Social Protection. It addresses details for all children aged from birth to five years living in the State and in receipt of child benefit. This is used as a basis for projection of future junior infant intake at primary level. The data provides the overview for future school place demand. The child benefit data is then adjusted with localised data on the age of the first enrolment to account for patterns of movement where children are known to typically cross school planning area boundaries to enrol in schools. A huge amount of data is being gathered from the Department of Social Protection and elsewhere to identify where the challenges are. As regards the issue the Deputy raised, Portmarnock's school planning area has five primary schools. The demographic analysis for primary level shows projections for Portmarnock will peak in 2027. Furthermore, the actual 2025-26 enrolments for Portmarnock's special planning area were less than were projected for the 2025-26 school year. While the Department is aware of the enrolment pressures and the demand for additional school places in some areas, including Portmarnock, it is important to note that enrolment pressures can be driven by a number of issues. To return to the issue the Deputy raised, I know from his engagement and the engagement of others with the Department, and from a number of families I know from the area who have been engaging, that there are huge challenges. Portmarnock is one of the areas of the country where there is huge growth. The Deputy mentioned housing estates being developed and the number of children in particular estates. We are acutely aware of that. I assure the Deputy that the Department is keeping a very close eye on the matter. It is continuously looking at where the pressures are. In the 2025-26 school year, there are 7,000 fewer primary school students in the system than there were in the 2024-25 school year. I accept that that is of little benefit to Portmarnock, an area in which the population is growing enormously. I assure the Deputy that we will monitor this very carefully and try to do what we need to do.

It is difficult to find some comfort in the Minister of State's response for my constituents in Portmarnock. The current school year was bad because some students missed out and had to travel awkward distances to other schools for placement. Based on projections, it seems very likely that some siblings will not get into St. Marnock's National School in the coming year. That information is from good sources and the situation is only going to be compounded. The issue with Portmarnock is not just that it has new estates, but that the traditional part of the village has also seen major regeneration. A lot of younger families are moving into the houses that have been there for a long time. Pressures are increasing and we need a temporary or quick solution for the upcoming academic year. The Department needs to re-examine how it determines where resources need to go and how school planning areas are constructed. There are two main primary schools in Portmarnock, with a third, St. Nicholas of Myra National School, just outside the village. They are the schools for Portmarnock. They need investment. Pupils can walk and cycle to them safely, which is everything we want for local schooling as regards how pupils travel to school. I ask the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to put in place a proper solution for this issue. If we start pushing out enrolment dates to require that students be five years old at enrolment and put at risk the ability of siblings to enrol, we really are in a bad place, and it is a place we could avoid with some better planning.

Modular accommodation was approved for the school in question last May. It is near completion in relation to special education classrooms as well. I have looked at the enrolments and staffing in the school. I can share that information on enrolments from 2020 to date with the Deputy. I assure him that the Minister and I are acutely aware of this issue. We look at where the pressures are in primary and post-primary education. There are specific counties where there is a huge challenge at post-primary level and specific parts of the country that have challenges in relation to primary school education. Portmarnock is one of the latter group. We are working to make sure we have practical solutions in place, not just for September 2026 but right through. We need to plan properly for the future. We have to take into consideration all the demographic analysis we have done and all the information we have to ensure we are not back here again next year or the year after that. There are particular pockets of the country where primary school education is challenging, notwithstanding the decrease in the number of students in primary school. In other parts of the country, other issues have developed. In relation to the school the Deputy referenced and Portmarnock in general, I assure the Deputy that we are monitoring the position and engaging with all the school authorities, the education sector and the education partners to make sure we do the right thing. I have some background information which I will share with the Deputy, if that is helpful.