Despite predictions by earnest economists about the number of young people in the State dramatically declining over the next decade, there is no sign that anyone in the education field is paying heed.

The Department of Education's building and planning sections are processing more than 600 school projects at various stages of development. Some are refurbishments of existing schools; others are plans for new schools.

Among the projects are plans for 60 new primary schools, many for locations in the heart of Dublin's commuter belt.

While the ESRI has talked about reducing the level of State investment needed in education, those dealing with the demands of parents in the fast-growing areas of Wicklow, Kildare, Meath and Louth are experiencing the opposite. In these areas the name of the game is growth, and parents want money spent on new schools - now.

This is because the numbers of young people of school-going age spread between west Dublin and the midlands are huge and there is a need for extra provision.

One reason is the massive inflow into these counties of Irish emigrants returning from abroad with money in their pockets. Another reason is that thousands of young couples from Dublin are moving to these areas.

Both groups soon look for new schools to which to send their children and they want them provided rapidly by the Department. But the Department has to compete for school sites on the open market with house builders and retail developers. Consequently, it has to dig deep into its pocket.

With land prices likely to shoot up further, this situation is not going to improve. But what makes the Department's position worse - in an economic sense - is that, under the Education Act 1998, it is obliged to provide not only new schools but, more importantly, different types of schools.

So, in one area, if there is sufficient parental demand, it may have to purchase sites for three schools - a denominational school, a multi-denominational school and a Gaelscoil.

In strict economic terms, this could be seen as duplication. The thinking behind the Department's new plan is to group the three together in one location and save the taxpayer several millions of pounds a year.

In another example, it might be a Catholic school, a Church of Ireland school and a Gaelscoil which could be grouped together. There are many permutations. The only problem, predictably, is likely to be political. Will the powerful and well-connected education interests involved accept the idea of sharing for the greater good?

They do it in many schools in Austria and Holland, and Department officials have visited these countries to see for themselves how they operate. The reports back are positive.

However, one can guess at the objections which may be raised to the plan, not only from the representative groups but from parents themselves.

For example, would the parent of a child in a Gaelscoil be worried their daughter might not make the proper level of progress in the language if she was mixing every day in the school yard with pupils from an English-language school?

Of course, others may be distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of children of different religious persuasions mingling with each other so readily. If the Northern Ireland education scene is anything to go by, there will be a large mass who will find that idea disagreeable.

OTHER technical issues have still to be worked out. For example: who will have overall management control of the campus; who will pay the insurance; and, of course, how will different groups of children use the shared facilities? But Department sources have told The Irish Times these can be resolved, and have been in many European states.

However, they acknowledge that, while the building of a campus school and the fitting of 300 pupils into it is not a major problem, overcoming objections from the vested interests in the education scene will be more problematic.

The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has yet to identify himself with the plan publicly but he could surely count on some support from taxpayers.

Either way, the plan will never be implemented if the education partners - the churches, the teacher unions, the multi-denominational movement - do not come on board. Department sources say they will have a chance to comment in detail on the proposals within the next few months in a consultation process.

The Department is proceeding cautiously and is keen to point out that the proposals are in "the very early stages". As with almost everything in education, they will have life breathed into them only if the education partners give their assent.

With the State's coffers bursting at the seams, this might seem a strange time to want to save money on education, but Department sources point out that, since it assumed responsibility for buying school sites last year, it has had to exercise its powers carefully and responsibly.

"We can't go around building schools wherever we want and whenever we want," said a Department official last week. In other words, since it took on this new responsibility, it has to look for value for money - an idea always likely to get a sympathetic hearing from the Department of Finance mandarins in Merrion Street.

Some of the prices the Department has been forced to pay to secure single-school sites in west Dublin have left some officials reeling. Competing against builders and commercial developers is not easy and prices get pushed up quickly when the bidding concerns a prime site.

If the Department had the power to use compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) to get land for schools it would be better off. It seems a strange gap in public policy that local authorities have CPO powers to obtain land for roads but that the Department of Education cannot get land for an asset which is arguably even more beneficial to a community - a school.

eoliver@irish-times.ie