Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Bannon for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the current position concerning Loughegar national school, County Westmeath. I am doing so on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science. Loughegar is a co-educational primary school catering for boys and girls from junior infants to sixth class. The enrolment, as of 30 September 2007, was 161 pupils. The school has a current staffing of a principal, five mainstream assistants and two learning support teachers. The plan for Loughegar national school is to construct a new six-classroom primary school on the existing site.

The school authority submitted an application to the Department for large-scale capital funding for a new school project in November 1998. The building project is at an advanced stage of architectural planning and a tender report was submitted to the Department in November 2007. A letter was issued to the school authorities at that time advising the school not to proceed further until departmental approval was given. As Deputy Bannon stated, the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, had a meeting with a deputation from the school and local representatives in July this year, and he is acutely aware of the circumstances pertaining to this school.

The Minister explained to the House previously that all applications for large-scale capital funding are assessed in the Department against published prioritisation. Each project is assigned a band rating under these criteria, which reflects the type of works required and the urgency attaching to them. A band 2.2 rating has been assigned to the project for Loughegar national school, which reflects the fact that there is a deficit of mainstream accommodation.

On Monday last, 29 September, the Minister announced the next tranche of projects to progress through the school building programme, including five primary and two post-primary projects to prepare to go on site before the end of 2008, 12 primary and three post-primary projects to proceed to tender to go on site in the first half of 2009 and three primary schools to progress to application for planning permission and preparation of tender documents to allow the earliest possible date to site.

The Minister intends to make a further announcement in the first quarter of 2009 on major primary and post-primary school projects to proceed to construction. The school building project required for Loughegar will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme for 2009. The Minister wishes me to assure you that the project will be progressed when the necessary resources are available to allow this to happen.

The Deputy will appreciate that the Minister must manage the Department's capital budget in a responsible manner and, in so doing, must ensure that funding is targeted at schools most in need. That is why the Department introduced prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects, which were formulated following consultation with the education partners.

Thousands of building projects were carried out under the previous national development plan to provide new and modernised educational infrastructure and thousands more will be carried out under the new NDP, but there has to be an order as to how this happens and a realisation that not all building projects can proceed together.

The extent of the demand on the capital budget is enormous, providing accommodation for new communities together with accommodation for the unprecedented number of extra teachers which the Government has put into the system. We also must modernise much of the existing stock as a result of the historic under-investment in it. This cannot all be achieved over night. We have made huge inroads and we will continue to build on our success under the previous national development plan when we delivered 7,800 building projects.

As the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, has said, this must be done in an orderly and planned manner and on the basis of the most pressing need. Projects will be advanced incrementally through the system over time, consistent with the priority attaching to them. This approach is critical to ensuring that schools can know that their individual projects will be allowed to proceed, in order of priority, as and when funding allows.

The school building project at Loughegar national school is being considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme. The Minister wishes me to assure Deputy Bannon that the project will be progressed when the necessary resources are available to allow this to happen.

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