Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Education and Science I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the Department's position regarding the proposed provision of a new school building for Sonna national school, County Westmeath.

Sonna national school was originally included under the small schools initiative and the school was offered €440,000 to build and improve the accommodation in the school. Having examined all the options the school decided to build a new four classroom school but withdrew from the devolved scheme as they considered the allocation insufficient for such an undertaking. The school currently has two small permanent classrooms and two prefabs.

The current staffing in the school consists of the principal and three mainstream teachers together with a shared special education teacher. The proposed project will consist of the construction of a new four classroom school and is currently at stage 3 of architectural planning.

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 investment will facilitate the provision of new schools and extensions in developing areas and the improvement of existing schools through the provision of replacement schools, extensions or large scale refurbishments over the coming years.

The progression of all large scale building projects from initial design stage through to construction phase is considered on an ongoing basis in the context of the national development plan and the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme. The project referred to by the Deputy will likewise be considered in that context.

I would like to give the assurance that the Minister and her Department are committed to providing a new school building for the national school referred to by the Deputy at the earliest possible date.

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