Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to this House the position with regard to the incident which occurred at Hedgestown national school, Lusk, County Dublin, last week and the Department's plans to provide a new building for the school.

Hedgestown national school is a fully vertical co-educational facility. This means that it caters for boys and girls from junior infants to sixth class, inclusive. The enrolment as at 30 September 2008 was 82 pupils. The school has a current staffing of a teaching principal, three mainstream class teachers, one language support teacher and one learning support teacher.

The existing school building is currently located on a sloped site of less than 0.5 acres. The school has three permanent classrooms and the Department is grant-aiding the rental of a prefabricated mainstream classroom and resource rooms. The Department also sanctioned the purchase of a prefab this year to meet the school's September 2008 needs.

A ceiling collapse in the school was reported to the Department last week. The Department immediately notified the incident to the Health and Safety Authority and it advised the school to do likewise. A senior member of the Department's professional staff visited the school to assess the situation and to make recommendations on the works that would be needed to address the problem. A member of the Health and Safety Authority also visited the school.

Following the recommendations of the Department's professional and technical staff, the board of management was informed that the Department will provide the school with the funds to carry out the necessary remediation works and to employ a suitably qualified consultant to advise the board of management on and to oversee these works.

I am pleased to inform Deputy Reilly that alternative accommodation has been sourced for the entire school population pending the completion of the works. This accommodation is in Rush-Lusk Educate Together national school. The Department provided an off-site construction building for this school earlier this year and accommodation is available in it on a short term basis. Transport to this accommodation is in the process of being arranged for the Hedgestown pupils. They are expected to take up occupation when the schools re-open after the mid-term break.

The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, wants to take the opportunity to thank the authorities and the principal's of both Hedgestown national school and Rush-Lusk Educate Together for their co-operation in what is a difficult time for Hedgestown national school, in particular.

With regard to the proposed large scale capital project for Hedgestown, the Department intends providing the school with a new eight classroom generic repeat design building. A site for this development is being provided by the parish. It has been technically assessed and deemed suitable. The project for the new building was announced by the former Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, to progress to architectural planning in April 2007.

In common with all applications for large scale capital funding, the application for Hedgestown was assessed in accordance with the Department's published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects. It has been assigned a band two rating under this process.

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