Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

As regards the proposed amalgamation of the existing boys' and girls' national schools in the Lixnaw area of County Kerry, the schools indicated to the Department of Education and Science that they propose to amalgamate to provide for a single co-education national school to serve the area. Before progressing the project further and to ensure that any capital funding allocated to assist in the amalgamation being provided represents optimal use of resources and is appropriate to meet the schools' long-term accommodation needs, it will be necessary to consider the possibility of using any of the existing buildings before pursuing a greenfield site for a new build project.

The Department, upon request, recently received further technical documentation in respect of the school buildings from the schools. The next step is to carry out a technical investigation of the existing buildings to determine their suitability. When this inspection has been completed, the project will be progressed in the context of the school building and modernisation programme.

Did Deputy Deenihan state that the boys' school was built 30 years ago?

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