Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I will check on that for the Deputy. The school has a current staff of one principal, two mainstream assistants, one developing post, one permanent resource teacher, one permanent learning support teacher and one temporary language support teacher.

In January 2005, the school authority submitted an application to the Department for large-scale capital funding for an extension project. An assessment of the projected enrolment trends, demographic trends and the housing developments in the area has been carried out and has determined the long-term projected staffing for a 24-classroom school. The building project is in the early stages of architectural planning and a revised stage two is currently being examined. The building project is being considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Over the lifetime of the national development plan, the Government will provide funding of €4.5 billion for school buildings. This will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State and will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where they are needed. The investment will allow the Department to continue the school building programme, which commenced during the lifetime of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested in school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

See this speech in context