John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I am pleased to be able to take this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills. I thank the Deputy for raising it as it provides me with an opportunity to outline to the Dáil the Government's strategy for capital investment in education projects and also to outline the current position on Midleton in particular.

Modernising facilities in our existing building stock as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth present a significant challenge. The Government has shown a consistent determination to improve the condition of school buildings and ensure that the 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 based on the demographics of an area, proposed housing developments, condition of buildings and site capacity, and leads 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. Projects are selected for inclusion in the school building and modernisation programme on the basis of priority of need. That 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 1 is the highest and band 4 the lowest. Band 1 projects, for example, include the provision of buildings where none currently exists but there is a high demand for pupil places, while a band 4 project makes provision for desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities, such as a library or new sports hall.

Furthermore, the forward planning section of the Department is in the process of carrying out detailed analysis and reports in order to identify the school accommodation requirements for each area, up to and including the school year 2014-15. The progression of all large-scale building projects arising from the forward planning section's analysis of accommodation needs will be considered in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme.

However, as the Deputy will be aware, as part of this process Midleton has been identified as one of the areas projected to undergo increases in educational demand in the coming years. In that context, the Department is currently in the process of acquiring a suitable site which is zoned by the local authority for education use in the Midleton area. To this end the Department has applied for planning permission as part of the exchange of contracts. Cork County Council has sought further information on this planning application and I am advised that a response will be provided to the planning authority in the coming weeks. When the acquisition of a suitable site is concluded, the Department will consider the optimal use of the site to meet the primary school needs of Midleton in conjunction with applications from existing schools in the town. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

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