Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Increases in our population, including the impact of immigration, are now unquestionably the main drivers of growth in demand for school accommodation. On foot of current and projected demographics, the Department is planning provision for a minimum increase in the national primary school-going population of 100,000 pupils by 2013. The number of extra classrooms that will be needed will depend on such factors as the spread of the additional pupils and the capacity, or otherwise, of existing schools to meet this demand. Nonetheless, the Government is determined to provide the extra accommodation that will be needed in line with or ahead of demand.

We have dramatically increased investment in the school building programme, from just over €90 million when we came into office to €540 million this year. Under the lifetime of the national development plan almost €4.5 billion will be invested in schools. This is an unprecedented level of capital investment which reflects the commitment of the Government to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post primary schools.

This year, more than €300 million will be invested in large-scale school building projects concentrated mainly in the provision of school accommodation in rapidly developing areas. This level of funding will facilitate construction work on more than 150 large scale projects which will deliver more than 15,000 additional permanent places in new schools and the extension and modernisation of facilities in existing schools for more than 45,000 pupils.

It will also enable the purchase of sites to facilitate the smooth delivery of the school building programme, again with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas. The balance will be used to fund the other elements of the school building programme such the summer works scheme, the small schools scheme, the permanent accommodation scheme, etc. In total, more than 1,500 projects will be delivered in 2007.

Not only are we investing far more in school buildings, but the improvements that have been made in the planning, design and delivery processes are also helping to deliver projects much more quickly. There is now much greater forward planning, with close and regular engagement with local authorities, while a new partnership model has been developed to deliver community facilities in tandem with new schools. To reduce red tape and allow projects to move faster, responsibility for smaller projects has been devolved to school level. Standard designs have also been developed for eight, 12 and 16-classroom schools to facilitate speedier delivery of projects and save on design fees.

Steps have been taken to reduce expenditure on the purchase of prefabs by enabling schools to build permanent accommodation instead. While it is impossible to eradicate the need for prefabs where extra accommodation is needed at very short notice, the amount spent is kept to an absolute minimum. Over the past five years, expenditure on temporary accommodation represented approximately 4% of the total capital expenditure on school buildings. Last year, it was less than 1.5%.

We are also doing our level best to enable new schools in developing areas to open in high quality permanent accommodation from the start. The new primary schools for Adamstown are being delivered in this way. Through both increased investment under the NDP and the improved planning and delivery processes that we have put in place in recent years, the Government will ensure that the need for extra school places is met.

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