Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Acting Chairman asked about the growth in the number of school places and whether there was a correlation between land price inflation and what we were trying to do in the capital programme. Our focus is on the capital programme for the period 2016 to 2019 which is for planned school projects, extensions and other construction works. The Acting Chairman said there had been a reduction in the number of new school places throughout the country. He is obviously aware of the pressures in his constituency.

Our guesstimates are made on a mathematical basis, using geographical information systems and in consultation with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the local authorities. We try to identify where the pressure points will be. My predecessor, Deputy Bruton, announced 42 new schools in places where we projected an increase in population. When I was in Gorey two weeks ago, I met a number of primary school principals who were very anxious about the availability of secondary school places, not this year or next year but in three to five years' time. There is an acute awareness of the pressure points in terms of where the next growth centres will be. That is why it is important we keep all of our projections, estimates and data under constant review.

There was a point made about different standards and specifications. In the past two or three years there has been increased emphasis on the environmental sustainability of buildings. We are putting a stronger focus on ensuring the design of buildings is in keeping with environmental considerations. Design teams now have to have such factors at the heart of their work.

On the use of prefabs, in 2018-19 there will be over 130 large-scale projects, or 38% of the 340 projects referred to, in addition to 280 smaller-scale projects and the additional accommodation scheme. They will deliver 40,000 school places and provide for the replacement of over 600 prefabs, a key element of the prefab replacement programme. I was asked how many students would be involved. I will be happy to obtain the data for the committee at a later stage.

Another question concerned school laboratories, physical education halls and home economics facilities upgrades. There is constant reconfiguration of internal parts of buildings, whether they are engineering rooms, art rooms or school laboratories. With specific reference to PE halls, we are looking to the next ten-year capital plan. We will introduce a pilot PE leaving certificate option in all schools by 2020 because there is weak infrastructure in PE hall provision throughout the country. We are looking to move forward in that regard.

There is no point putting in place comprehensive PE infrastructure at secondary level if it is not done hand-in-glove in primary schools. Throughout rural Ireland there are primary schools on the backs of hills that are not near community centres, parochial halls or parish centres. We really need to focus on the sports infrastructure we want to provide at primary school level because the statistics suggest half of all girls drop out of physical activity when they reach the age of 12 or 13 years. If we offer leaving certificate physical literacy or physical education classes when many of the target cohort have already dropped out, it will be a major challenge. A body of work needs to be done in that regard. Schools are being very creative and some have introduced sports in which we used to participate, including rounders and skipping, in addition to rugby, Gaelic football and soccer.

We need to keep a focus on the differences between physical education and physical activity.