A group campaigning to have a multi-denominational school established in a Dublin suburb says 433 children have been provisionally enrolled since the list opened four weeks ago.
The Terenure Educate Together Start-Up group, based in the Dublin 6/6w postal area, was set up by local parents who found they could not get places for their children in local religious-run schools because the children were not baptised.
The group began to look for expressions of interest from local parents at the end of May.
As of last Wednesday, 433 children's names had been provisionally enrolled.
Sixty of these children require Junior Infant places for this coming September.
Group founder Nikki Murphy said the list was still growing.
Ms Murphy said she was delighted by the strong support for a multi-denominational school shown by parents in the area and that it did not surprise her at all.
However, she said she was frustrated by the fact that parents had to campaign for such a school.
Last January, Ms Murphy and her partner Clem Brennan spoke to RTÉ News about their struggle to find a school place for their four-year-old son.
They said that the mostly Catholic local schools had indicated that without a baptismal certificate, their son would not get a place.
Religious-run schools are allowed to favour children of their own and other faiths over children of no religion.
All schools in the local vicinity are religious run, most by the Catholic Church.
The closest multi-denominational schools are oversubscribed.
Multi-denominational schools' group Educate Together said that the pressure for places in its schools in the capital this year is "extraordinary".
CEO Paul Rowe said almost all of its 40 schools in the greater Dublin area had more than four times the amount of children applying compared to places available.
The Terenure Educate Together Start-Up Group is meeting Minister for Education Jan O'Sullivan on Tuesday to discuss its situation.
It says it will be asking the minister to establish a multi-denominational school in the area for this coming September.
