Forward Planning Unit Meeting
Department of Education and Skills
Tullamore 22nd April 2010
A very informative meeting took place in the Department of Education and Skill’s Forward Planning Unit in Tullamore on 22nd April. Sinead O’Kane, Francis Fullen, Gillian Clarke and Deri Flood attended on behalf of GBMDS.
This trip to Tullamore arose out of the meeting that was held with then Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe in Dail Eireann in February 2010, at which the Minister asked GBMDS to keep in touch with the Forward Planning Unit of his department on developments regarding the schools building programme.
The Forward Planning Unit (FPU) was set up by the DES two years ago to identify priority areas nationwide, for additional school places, based on population growth. There has been some uncertainty as to what qualified as a “priority area” , and in order to clarify this issue an invitation was issued to GBMDS by the FPU to come and meet with them in Tullamore.
The Forward Planning officials confirmed, as per the Minister’s meeting in February, that they are reviewing the population growth of school going children in our area. This study is being carried out using their geo-coding system which is based on the HSE’s Child Benefit recipient data. The address and date of birth of every child in the country receiving child benefit is recorded by the HSE. Preliminary results of this study will be available in 5 to 6 weeks.
One of the priority areas already identified by The Forward Planning Unit is Rinsgsend/ Sandymount. This area is bounded to the west by Clanbrassil Street/ Harold’s Cross Road. Our school is in the area known by the FPU as “Dolphins Barn” and this extends up to Crumlin and Walkinstown.
The officials pointed out that a large proportion of the demand for GMDS places is from the adjoining priority area of Ringsend/Sandymount.
In conclusion the DES officials explained the school building process in detail. The school will be notified of the results of the Forward Planning review when it is known.