The Department of Education and Skills has announced the patrons for nine new secondary schools that will be opening across the country in 2015 and 2016.

Providing additional places for up to 7,300 students in areas of Cork, Cavan, Dublin and North Wicklow that have seen populations growth in recent years, the new establishments include a mix of multi-denominational and Catholic schools.

Four of the new schools will be run by Educate Together, two by the local Education and Training Board (ETB), one by the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, one jointly by the local ETB and Educate Together and the last one by the local ETB alongside the Catholic Bishop of Cloyne.

This marks the culmination of government plans announced in 2011 to establish 20 new secondary schools in Ireland up to 2017.

Minister for education and skills Ruairi Quinn said: "I am confident that these new schools, alongside the existing schools in each area, will mean that parents and students have real choice when it comes to deciding which school most reflects their own ethos."

The announcement also brings the total number of Educate Together second-level schools to eight.

Written by Donal Walsh

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