Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

With the range of options I have outlined, we are satisfied we can make quick progress in building the new schools, particularly in developing areas. This will require us to ensure that much of our funding goes towards those areas in coming years. Having the generic design and repeating models removes all the stages of architectural design, appointment of design teams, etc. I have already opened two gaelscoileanna, one in County Tipperary the other in County Roscommon, which were identical on the outside, but completely different inside. Both were very quickly delivered. This year alone 20 such schools will commence construction. They have removed the need for all the architectural planning which is one way of doing it quickly. The design and build option is another one that can be used for very large schools. We have a 16-classroom school in Griffeen Valley, a 24-classroom school in Diswellstown, and a new 16-classroom school is to be built at Adamstown. Rather than going to the market to build one school at a time we are bundling schools together under the design and build option. For example, the new post-primary schools for Donabate, Laytown and Phibblestown will be bundled together under one design and build contract. This will speed up delivery and will ensure the Department is not caught up in the intricacies of design, etc. That we have devolved so much responsibility for all the smaller schools is one of the key successes in ensuring so many schools have got projects. The 1,500 projects this year could not be delivered if it was all being done centrally by the Department.

On the issue of sites, our biggest demand is in the County Dublin area including Kildare and Wicklow. The Deputy started to speak about class size, I thought we were talking about classrooms.

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