John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity of outlining to the House the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding primary school provision in Letterkenny, County Donegal. The Department's school building programme in 2008 aims to provide sufficient school places in developing areas, while also showing the Government's commitment to delivering improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary school accommodation throughout the country. During the lifetime of the national development plan, approximately €4.5 billion will be invested in school buildings. 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 in the coming years. It builds on the delivery of 7,800 building projects under the previous national development plan which resulted in new schools being built and the refurbishment of many existing schools.

Capital projects under the multi-annual building programme cannot all be delivered together and they are selected for inclusion in the school building and modernisation programme on the basis of priority of need. This is reflected in the band rating assigned to a project, which indicates the urgency, type and extent of work required at a school. There are four bands overall, of which band one is the highest and band four the lowest. Band one projects include, for example, the provision of buildings where none exist but where there is a high demand for pupil places, while a band four project makes provision of desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities, such as a library or new sports hall.

The forward planning section of the Department is in the process of identifying the areas where significant additional accommodation will be required at primary and post-primary level for 2009 and onwards. This work will be done in consultation with local authorities. The Department is included among the prescribed authorities to which local authorities are statutorily obliged to send draft development plans or proposed variations to development plans. As a matter of course, there is on-going liaison with local authorities to establish the location, scale and pace of any major proposed developments and their possible implications for school provision. In addition, the Department planning process utilises census data and school enrolment trends.

The Department is aware that the latest publication by the Central Statistics Office on population and labour force projections indicates that the population aged five to 12 years is projected to increase by at least 10% in the next decade. This will happen even with zero net migration and falling fertility rates. Depending on the extent of inward migration, the increase could be even greater. Meeting the demand for school places arising from these increases will in be a major challenge for the Department and for the State. Therefore, when examining accommodation requirements for an area such as Letterkenny, factors under consideration include population growth, demographic trends, current and projected enrolments, recent and planned housing developments and capacity of existing schools to meet demand for places. Having considered these factors, decisions will be taken on the means by which emerging needs will be met within an area.

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