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13 Dec 2025
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13 Dec 2025
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The impressive Naas Community College met a demand for places - but more schools are needed in the county
Automatic school places are being denied to children across County Kildare.
According to local politician Aidan Farrelly pupils and students seeking admission to both primary and post primary schools are being affected.
The problem has been caused by a rapid rise in residential development and a consequent influx of people to the county.
And this has, in turn, put pressure on vital services such as education and medical facilities.
“There is an expectation that when you buy a house or apartment the services we take for granted will be there but that is not the case,” said Cllr Farrelly, who raised the issue at a Kildare County Council meeting.
He pointed to the development of a significant new boys national school in Clane and asked whether it will be capable of meeting future demand as well as existing demand.
Cllr Aidan Farrelly
Cllr Farrelly said he has been contacted by parents in Clane and Prosperous worried about when their children will begin their formal education and in some cases this may not happen until the pupil is aged at least six.
Young people have been unable to immediately secure places in the secondary school in Prosperous, despite having attended primary school there. Plans for a new second level there have not progressed
Cllr Farrelly believes that the problem is greatest in towns like Maynooth, Celbridge and Naas.
He said that the problem has been accentuated by the number of strategic housing developments approved in Kildare.
SHDs are residential building projects which go directly to An Bord Pleanála (rather than KCC). These are developments for 100 or more units and the decision cannot be appealed. SHDs were introduced with the intention of speeding up the planning process.
Cllr Farrelly said that while people can make multiple school admission places for a child there is nevertheless a shortage of places.
“In north Kildare, schools are oversubscribed every year,” he stated.
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