By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Minister Bruton announces patronage of 4 new Primary schools – including an Irish speaking primary school in Ballincollig
The Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton T.D., today announced the patronage of the four new primary schools to be established in 2017 and 2018. In all cases the Minister accepted the recommendations of the New Schools Establishment Group. These schools were announced in November 2015 to serve a number of locations under increased demographic pressure.
Minister Bruton said:
“We are committed to delivering on our Programme for Government commitment to reach 400 multi-denominational and non-denominational schools by 2030. In a changing Ireland, we believe that families around the country should be offered greater choice in the education system.
“The establishment of these new schools will ensure that sufficient school places are in place to cater for the growing cohort of pupils at primary level over the coming years. Additional places will also continue to be provided by extending existing provision as part of the capital investment programme for schools”.
“Parental preference has become a key determinant in deciding the patronage of new schools and I’m pleased to say that the views of parents as expressed through the process are strongly reflected in the decisions I have made on the patronage of these four new schools.”
The Minister also noted the improvement in the process to facilitate a separate parental preference for education through Irish brings greater visibility to consideration of the level of demonstrated demand for Irish medium education.
The patronage of the four new primary schools will be as follows:
- Patronage of the new school in Ballincollig, Co Cork has been awarded to An Foras Pátrúnachta
- Scoil Sinead has been awarded patronage of the new school in Pelletstown
- Educate Together has been awarded patronage of the new schools in both Dún Laoghaire and Dublin South City Centre.
These new schools will provide significant additional pupil places in the areas they will serve and between them will have capacity to cater for over 1,700 additional primary pupils when fully developed.
The Minister also stated that in making his decisions he was particularly conscious of the clear parental demand for diversity of provision in many of the areas where the new schools are being established. All applications were assessed on the basis of published criteria, including the extent of diversity in existing schools and the scale of diversity to be provided by the new schools.
The Minister expressed his gratitude to the Chairperson and new members of the New Schools Establishment Group for their valuable input to the process, ensuring an objective and transparent process. The Department will be contacting each of the patron bodies directly in relation to the logistics of the establishment of these new schools.
