Mr. John Curtis:

The Joint Managerial Body, JMB, represents the management authorities of almost 380 voluntary secondary schools. We welcome the invitation from the committee to participate in this discussion on the school building programme and related matters.

Any emerging strategy on education must include adequate provision for demographic surges in school population. Equally as important, we need to ensure that the fabric of our school infrastructure is systematically upgraded to enable quality provision for those in our care and that educational opportunity is afforded in an equitable manner. Projections show that we can expect a continuing increase in enrolments at second level of at least 84,000 students up as far as 2026.

A discrepancy exists in the voluntary school sector which has a historical tradition of engagement in education but which has suffered from inadequate government investment in refurbishment and replacement of ageing facilities through successive generations. One impediment to progress in this area is the lack of a comprehensive inventory of the national stock of school accommodation. This was outlined in Professor Emer Smyth's 2013 ESRI study, Governance and Funding of Voluntary Secondary Schools in Ireland. The JMB urges that a proper survey be conducted and the information disseminated.

We welcome the fact that the Minister for Education and Skills has announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next four years. This announcement follows nationwide demographic exercises carried out by his Department into the current and future need for primary and post-primary school places across the country. The Department has also committed to monitoring areas where the accommodation of existing schools may need to be expanded to meet the needs of the local population. Approximately 40% of additional school places are to be delivered by extending existing schools. Nonetheless, there are still questions as to whether this will adequately address the needs that we identify.

The JMB has welcomed the publication of the six-year plan for major capital investment. Some 54 voluntary secondary schools are listed on the plan and each of these can look forward to an extension and refurbishment of existing premises. However, it is imperative that the capital budget for schools be increased substantially. Many voluntary secondary schools have been serving their communities for more than 150 years. Many were built or extended with no or limited State assistance and are now in need of major refurbishment and extensions.

The JMB is concerned that with increasing building costs and lack of sufficient personnel in the school building unit the targets in the six-year plan will not be met. There are schools on the list for 2018 that still have not received a technical visit from officials in the building unit. Other schools that have had a technical visit are still waiting for a schedule of accommodation and few have received approval to appoint a design team. It is the JMB view that schools due to go to construction in the period 2019-2021 need to have technical visits almost immediately with schedules of accommodation being issued very shortly afterwards. With the time required to design, to get statutory approvals and agreement with the Department and to tender, it will be a huge task to meet the targets of the six-year plan. The appointment of a fully funded administrative assistant for building in schools with projects over a specified size or other appropriate intervention such as funded management body support must also be considered.

There are many voluntary secondary schools who have recently applied for major works but who are not on the six-year plan list. These schools and the communities they serve cannot wait until 2022 or 2023 to be assessed for capital investment. A mechanism must be found to have these schools added to the current list and additional funding made available to meet their needs.

There is an increasing demand under the additional accommodation scheme to provide additional classrooms and practical rooms for our schools, and to replace prefabricated classrooms. Current demand clearly exceeds the level of finance available.