Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to this House the Department's plans for the proposed building project for Scoil Eoin national school, Tralee, County Kerry. Scoil Eoin national school is a coeducational facility at junior level and a single sex girls school at senior level. It has a current enrolment of 567 pupils. The staffing level is a principal, 21 mainstream assistants, one permanent special class teacher, one temporary special class teacher, three temporary language support teachers, four permanent learning support-resource teachers and one temporary resource teacher for Travellers.

The school authority has applied to the Department of Education and Science for large scale capital funding for an extension project. It is the Department's intention to provide the school with permanent accommodation for a principal, 24 mainstream assistants and ancillary accommodation appropriate to a school of this size. As the Deputy is aware, the project is awaiting the appointment of a design team.

The Deputy will also probably be aware that all applications for large scale capital funding are assessed in the planning and building unit of the Department against published prioritisation criteria which were formulated following consultation with the education partners. Under these criteria, each application is assigned a band rating which reflects the type of works needed and the urgency attaching to them. Projects are advanced through the school building and modernisation programme in accordance with the band rating assigned to them. There are four band ratings in all under the criteria with band 1 being the highest and band 4 the lowest. Each band rating has a number of sub-categories which more specifically describe the type of works needed and, again, the urgency attaching to them.

The building project for Scoil Eoin attracts a band 2.1 rating which reflects the fact that a significant extension and refurbishment project is needed. Unfortunately, due to the level of demand on the Department's capital budget, it is not possible to provide an indicative timeframe as to when the design team appointment for this project can be made. However, a band 2 rated project has the second highest band rating possible, which means that the project is well positioned to proceed once the funding is available to allow the design team appointment. As with all large scale capital projects, the progression of the project from the appointment of the design team and initial design stage through to construction phase will be considered in the context of the Department's multiannual school building and modernisation programme.

The allocation for school buildings in 2009 is €581 million, which represents a significant investment in the school building and modernisation programme. This level of funding, at a time of great pressure on the public finances, is a sign of the Government's very real commitment to investing in school infrastructure and it will permit the continuation of the enormous progress made under the last national development plan when 7,800 school building projects were completed. The Government looks forward to building on this progress with an unprecedented allocation of €4.5 billion under the current national development plan. The Department of Education and Science will consider the advancement of the project for Scoil Eoin from initial design stage through to construction phase in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme on this basis.

I thank the Deputy again for raising this matter and assure him that progress on the proposed project for Scoil Eoin will be made commensurate with the priority attaching to it and as soon as the requisite funding is available. I will take on board his comments in the House and convey them to the Minister and the Department.

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