A major shake-up in planning for schools around the State was announced by the Minister for Education today.
Mr Dempsey is to pilot a new initiative in five areas which will give parents and other interested parties a chance to contribute to the process that determines where a school will be located.
He said the aim is to ensure that key decisions on the need for new schools, the number of new schools required in an area and where in an area the schools should be located would be reached in a transparent mannter.
All representations made in the process will be published.
For the rest of this school year a new planning model will be piloted in five areas it will involve publishing area development plans for the five pilot regions.
"In future the provision of new schools will be decided only after a transparent consultation process. Parents, trustees, sponsors of prospective new schools and all interested parties from a locality will have the opportunity to have their voices heard in the process," Mr Dempsey said.
"Last year when publishing the 2004 School Building Programme I made it clear that I wanted open and transparent systems for determining how resources are allocated to school building projects. I am now extending that approach to the key area of school planning decisions.
"My main objective is to ensure that all relevant parties have a say and that the process is open and public. The Commission on School Accommodation will conduct the public engagement and all submissions made to the Commission by interested parties will be published," he added.
Mr Dempsey said the process will culminate in a development plan for each area. "This plan will be a public document and will be the touchstone against which all capital funding decisions for the area will be made."
He added: "It is vital that critical decisions such as the number of schools needed in an area should not be made behind closed doors."
The five areas involved in the pilot project are: Mayo (Westport/Newport areas); Laois (Mountmellick/ Mountrath areas); North Dublin/South Louth and Mid-Meath (both rapidly developing areas); the line of the N4 (following the line of the N4 from Leixlip through Kilcock, Enfield, Longwood, Kinnegad and Rochfortbridge to Kilbeggan) and North Kerry (including Tralee, Ballybunion, Causeway, Tarbert, Listowel and Castleisland.)
Each plan will attempt to set out the blueprint for schools' development in an area covering a period of up to 10 years.
However, the announcement was criticised by Fine Gael's spokeswoman on education, Ms Olwyn Enright, who said she accepted the need for better future planning in the school building programme.
However, she said the minister had some "very serious questions" to answer.
"Why is such an initiative necessary? Is this his acknowledgement that the school building programme was cynically manipulated in the run up to the last general election?"
Ms Enright asked whether the net effect of the Commission on School Accommodation would be to create "another level of bureaucracy" and whether it would delay the decision making process.
She also questioned how much the commission would cost and to whom it would be answerable.