Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the position regarding a proposed building project for the Convent national school in Listowel, County Kerry.

I wish to explain the Deputy's reference to the commission on school accommodation. He is referring here to what is known as an area development plan for the north Kerry area which was published by the commission on school accommodation in January 2007. This plan examined primary and post-primary educational infrastructure provision in the Tarbert, Listowel, Ballybunion, Causeway, Castleisland and Tralee areas of north Kerry. The final plan derives from, among other things, a widespread public consultation process and, in its final format, the Department's long-term educational strategy at both primary and post-primary level is set out for the areas concerned. The plan also forms the framework against which capital investment for those areas will be made for the foreseeable future, subject to the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects.

There are 12 primary schools in Listowel. In its examination of enrolments in these schools, the commission found no change in enrolments between 1997 to 1998 and 2006 to 2007. While pointing out increases and decreases in enrolments in individual schools, the commission also found that there was no trend that would indicate a discernible increase in enrolments in the future in an overall context. From census data, the commission found that there was no significant increase in the demographics of the area either.

The convent national school is an all girls' school catering for pupils from junior infants to sixth class. It has a current enrolment of 271 pupils. The current staffing comprises a principal, seven classroom assistants, one resource teacher for Travellers, four learning support-resource teachers, one language support teacher and two teachers under the programme Giving Children an Even Break.

In its recommendation on the Convent national school, the commission on school accommodation said that attention should be given by the Department to its proposed building project. The project in question relates to the replacement of prefab accommodation. The application for capital funding to enable this has been assessed and assigned a band two rating under the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects to which I already referred. This reflects the fact that the school has a significant element of permanent accommodation and some prefab structures.

The Deputy will appreciate that the focus for my Department's capital programme for 2008 is on providing accommodation in areas of rapid population growth where little or no school accommodation exists. Where the budgetary situation allows, however, other projects may be approved to proceed, but this will be in accordance with the band rating assigned to individual projects to ensure that the highest priority projects are targeted first. This is the purpose of the prioritisation criteria in the first place. Progression of the project for the Convent national school in Listowel will be considered in this context.

I again thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Government has invested heavily in extending and upgrading the existing school stock in recent years because it has a full appreciation of the need to ensure that all our schools have adequate facilities. It is the Department's intention to continue this process to build on the huge progress which has been made.

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