About half of all secondary schools across the State are oversubscribed, with the highest concentration in the Dublin area, Photograph: iStock
The report examines the subscription status of individual schools across 314 school planning areas, which are used by the department to plan for school places. Separate data, based on an analysis of school admission notices, shows that in the most heavily oversubscribed schools, as few as 20-25 per cent of initial applicants were successful in securing first-year school places in 2023.
Other heavily subscribed schools with low proportions of successful applicants included St Conleth’s College, Dublin 4 ; Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 ; Newpark Comprehensive School, Co Dublin ; and Muckross Park College, Dublin 4 . Some post-primary schools also disclosed how many pupils were left on waiting lists to get a school place last year.
“The sharing of data has been very effective in the identification of school place requirements across the areas referenced. In the majority of areas, the work of schools, patrons, management bodies and the department has ensured that there are sufficient school places available to meet the needs of children in the area,” it said.