Minister Foley announces patronage of three new primary schools to be established in 2021

From Department of Education

The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD today announced the patronage of the three new primary schools to be established in 2021.

In all cases, the Minister accepted the recommendations of the New Schools Establishment Group (NSEG).

Today’s announcement forms an essential

part of plans to ensure that sufficient new school places are available to cater for the growing numbers of pupils at primary level over the coming years.

The new primary schools are being established in September 2021 as part of the Government’s commitment to invest heavily in education with 47 new schools to be established between 2019 and 2022 to cater for demographic growth. Following an updated review of demographics at primary level, the Minister recently announced that she had approved a number of changes to the list of primary schools to be established in 2021, including that schools will be established, as planned, in the Donaghmede_Howth_D13, Dublin 2_Dublin 4 and Sallynoggin_Killiney_DLR/North school planning areas.

The Minister said:

“Parental preference is a key factor in deciding the patronage of new schools. I thank parents for expressing their preferences in this patronage process. The views of parents as expressed through the process are reflected in the decisions I have made on the patronage of these three new schools. In relation to language, I am particularly pleased that two of these three new primary schools were designated as Irish-medium primary schools in advance of the patronage process being run, providing an Irish-medium option for parents in these school planning areas which has not been available to date”.

The three new primary schools to be established in 2021 will provide significant additional provision in the areas they will serve. The outcome of the patronage process is as follows:

County	School Planning Area	Patronage Awarded	Language of Instruction
Dublin	Donaghmede_Howth_D13	An Foras Pátrúnachta	Irish*
Dublin	Dublin 2_Dublin 4	An Foras Pátrúnachta	Irish*
Dublin	Sallynoggin_Killiney_DLR/North	Educate Together	English

• These two schools were designated as Irish-medium in advance of the OPPS commencing, in accordance with the framework to provide more opportunities to increase the provision of Irish-medium education at primary level announced in September 2019.

The Minister expressed her gratitude to the members of the New Schools Establishment Group for their valuable input to the process which has ensured an objective and transparent process.