According to internal Department of Education figures obtained by the Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Acts, Dublin 15’s primary school population is set to balloon by up to 181% over the five years to 2014.
Blanchardstown West (+181%), (Carpenterstown (+149%), Blanchardstown Village (+124%) and Tyrellstown-Mulhuddart (no figure provided) are among the areas of the country set to experience the most dramatic spike in demand for primary school place.
These figures come on top of recent CSO figures which show that Fingal has the highest birth rate in the country at 23 per 1,000 population.
“The last decade has seen a massive increase in the Dublin 15 population as young couples and families were attracted to the area. The latest figures show that Fingal as a whole is experiencing its very own ‘baby boom’ despite the country’s economic difficulties.
“The Department of Education and Fingal County Council have been chasing their tails for years on the provision of primary school places for Dublin 15.
“There seems to be no recognition of the simple fact that if you provide for thousands of new houses to be built in an area, demand for primary school places will follow several years later as night follows day.”
“Although a number of primary schools have been built in recent years, they are only barely keeping pace with growing demand. For most of the past decade there has been panic come September when parents realise that there is no place for their child. In itself, this is a savage indictment of the government’s priorities; developers’ hunger for unsustainable house-building was not matched by equal efforts to provide schools to serve the families that bought a home.”
“We absolutely must avoid a return to the annual school place scramble. Plans and funds must be put in place to meet demand as it grows over the next four years. The powers that be can’t say that they had no fair warning.
“Parents and campaigners in the local area are all too aware of the need for new schools and have been very active in lobbying local politicians as well as the County Council and the Department of Education.”