Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Lynch for raising the issue and sympathise with him on last weekend's all-Ireland result. I share his pain. The Minister for Education and Science could not come to the House and asked me to take this matter for him.

Modernising facilities in existing building stock as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth such as that referred to by the Deputy is a significant challenge. The Government has shown a consistent determination to improve the condition of our school buildings and to ensure that appropriate facilities are in place to enable the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum.

All applications for capital funding are assessed in the planning and building unit of the Department. The assessment process determines the extent and type of need presenting based on the demographics of an area, proposed housing developments, condition of buildings, site capacity, etc., leading to an appropriate accommodation solution.

As part of this process, a project is assigned a band rating under published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects. These criteria were devised following consultation with the education partners. The original criteria were revised and refined in 2004.

Projects 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 - in other words, a proposed building project moves through the system commensurate with the band rating assigned to it.

There are four band ratings overall, of which band one is the highest and band four the lowest. Band one projects, for example, include the provision of buildings where none currently exists but 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 proposed new school building for Star of the Sea primary school has been assigned a band one rating. As the Deputy will be aware, in February, the Minister for Education and Science announced details of 43 major building projects to proceed to tender and construction in which the Star of the Sea primary school was included.

All major projects on the Department's capital programme progress through the same structured process of architectural planning which is divided into clearly defined stages. The stages of architectural planning are set out in the Department's design team procedures and are necessary to comply with Department of Finance guidelines which require that capital projects be fully designed prior to going to tender. They also ensure proper cost management of capital projects and facilitate compliance with statutory and public procurement requirements.

At present, there are five stages involved in the progression of major school projects through architectural planning. This project is currently at an advanced stage of architectural planning and a stage 2b submission is expected shortly from the design team.

The brief for this project is to provide a new 16 classroom generic repeat design, GRD, school building, including a general purpose hall and ancillary accommodation, on a greenfield site. An application has been made for planning permission and a decision is awaited. An application for a fire safety certificate has also been made. I will ask the Minister to respond directly to the delay in providing extra information.

The allocation for school buildings in 2009 is almost €614 million which represents a significant investment in the school building and modernisation programme. This level of funding for the building programme at a time of huge pressure on public finances is a sign of the very real commitment of this Government to investing in school infrastructure and will permit the continuation of progress in the overall improvement of school accommodation.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and will revert to him with specific details on the current situation.

See this speech in context