Parents of children in commuter belt counties are being advised by education authorities to apply to multiple secondary schools due to the volume of oversubscribed places in areas of high enrolment pressure.
Almost half of all secondary schools across the State are set to be oversubscribed in the coming school year, with the highest concentration in parts of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Galway and Cork where there has been rapid population growth over recent years.
In a bid to ease enrolment pressures this year, the Department of Education is writing to parents to advise them to apply to multiple schools in their area in case their child misses out on their first-choice school place.
It has also requested that parents not accept multiple school places in order to free up spaces for other children without a place.
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School population projections show post-primary enrolments are climbing across more than three-quarters of school planning areas across the State and due to reach the highest level on record in about two years, before declining.
At a national level, the Department of Education says there are more than enough school places for children with an excess of 10,000 places available for the 2025-2026 school year than sixth-class children.
However, many local areas where there has been sharp population increases have experienced acute pressure for school places.
Last year, these areas included parts of Co Kildare (Prosperous/Clane, Celbridge, Naas, Kilcock, Kildare Town/Curragh, Maynooth, Newbridge), Dublin (Newcastle/Rathcoole, Lucan, Malahide/Nevinstown, Carpenterstown, Castleknock, Portmarnock), Co Cork (Clonakilty, Fermoy, Midleton), Co Wicklow (Greystones, Kilcoole) and Co Galway (Athenry, Galway City, Oranmore).
In a statement, the Department of Education said that as part of planning for September 2025, the department would ask post-primary schools across areas of potential enrolment pressure to share their admissions data to help identify duplicate applications and determine whether there was a need for additional places.
“It is expected that, as in previous years, the data sharing will provide confidence that there is sufficient school place availability in the majority of areas,” a spokesman said in a statement. “However, if a shortfall of places is identified in an area, the department will work with schools to put the necessary solutions in place.”
The department said it had improved the IT system that schools used to register student enrolments which meant schools would know immediately where a new student had accepted a school place in more than one school. It said this would help “identify duplicate enrolments at a very early stage”.
Justin Gleeson, director of the All-Island Research Observatory at Maynooth University, said education authorities were facing new challenges posed by the fact that new housing developments nowadays tended to attract more mature families with older children who immediately needed school places.
Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne said he was concerned that pressure on school places could extend to other areas of rapid population growth – such as north Wexford and south Wicklow area – unless there was more forward planning.
“We are seeing rapid population growth across many communities and there are concerns that we won’t have enough school places if the planning doesn’t start now,” he said. “It puts pressure not just on schools, but access to GPs, childcare, sports facilities. We need more joined-up thinking.”
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