Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising these matters and giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the actions being taken by the Department of Education and Science to address the accommodation needs of the schools referred to in County Kildare. Under the national development plan, €4.5 billion has been assigned to the capital requirements of the primary and post-primary sectors. Almost €600 million will be spent this year on school buildings.

Regarding the schools referred to by the Deputy, Caragh national school and Athy community college are situated in locations — Naas and Athy — designated as developing areas in the school planning and building unit. As part of the programme for Government, a developing areas unit was established recently in the Department to focus on the school accommodation needs of such developing areas, with the main emphasis in 2008 centring on the provision of sufficient school places in these areas, as well as delivering improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary school accommodation.

Architectural planning of a new community college in Athy is at an advanced stage and a tender report has been received in my Department. This project will deliver a new 4,850 m2 school to cater for a projected enrolment of 400 pupils. Along with a wide range of general and specialist classrooms and associated administration-ancillary accommodation, a dedicated physical education hall and facility for students with autism are also included in the plans.

Caragh national school's building project is also at an advanced stage of architectural planning. An extension of 15 classrooms, a general purpose room and ancillary accommodation are planned. When the project is complete the school will have a total of 20 mainstream classrooms.

In the context of developing areas, the status of all schools in Naas and Athy is being assessed as part of an overall delivery plan for each centre and work on these plans is at an advanced stage. Delivery plans will be used to inform future programmes for construction in developing areas from 2009 onwards.

Scoil Bhríde national school in Athgarvan is at a very advanced stage of architectural planning. It is proposed to provide four additional classrooms plus ancillary accommodation to provide a ten classroom school. Nurney national school is also at a very advanced stage of architectural planning. It is proposed to demolish the existing school and replace it with a new eight classroom school.

The Deputy will appreciate that 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 Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme, in which the main focus is to deliver school places within rapidly developing areas. He will also be aware that a school building programme for any year is rolled out in tranches to ensure the steady flow of projects to underpin the multi-annual nature of the school building and modernisation programme. The first tranche of the Department's capital programme for 2008 was announced last February. The Minister for Education and Science intends to make further announcements during this year regarding projects to progress in the context of the Department's building programme. I thank the Deputy again for raising these matters in this House.

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