Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 285: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if there is an application from a school (details supplied) in County Donegal for permanent accommodation; the date such an application was received in her Department; if it is being considered at present; if such a scheme will be approved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30112/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school submitted an application under the Small Schools Scheme 2007 for additional accommodation. Due to the volume of applications received in the Department it was not possible to allocate funding to all proposed projects and the school referred to by the Deputy was not successful in this instance.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has been working for some time with Fingal County Council on the acquisition of sites to enable new schools to open throughout its area of functionality in 2008.

The ability of the Department to open these schools next September is contingent on the sites being acquired very soon. The Department is encouraged by the Council's recent positive statement in relation to the progress being made in this regard. The schools themselves will be provided in areas to meet the needs arising from the local authority's own County Development Plan and its various Local Area Development Plans.

The Deputy will appreciate that due to commercial sensitivities, I cannot comment on specific sites at this time, however, I can assure the Deputy that the Department will continue to work very closely with Fingal County Council to meet the needs of the Fingal area, including those to which he refers, for next year and beyond.

With regard to the school to which the Deputy specifically refers, the Department approved the provision of one additional mainstream classroom for September 2007 to cater for additional enrolments. However, I understand that due to site restrictions it would prove difficult to expand this school further. Therefore, the plan is to make greenfield provision under the process outlined above.