Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

To meet the needs of our growing population of school-going children, the Department must establish new schools as well as extending or replacing several existing schools in areas where demographic growth has been identified. The delivery of these new schools, together with extension projects to meet future demand, will be the main focus for the Department's capital budget for the coming years. The design of the proposed new school building for Clifden community school has been developed based on a long-term projected enrolment of 425 pupils. The current enrolment is a little above 400 pupils and enrolment levels have been relatively stable during recent years. Full planning permission for the new school was granted in February last year. Currently, the school's design team is working on finalising the stage 2(b) submission, which includes completing the detailed design of the school and the preparation of tender documents. This will be then forwarded to my Department for review.

Given the need to ensure that every child has access to a school place, the delivery of major school projects to meet the demographic demands nationally, as well as demands in Galway, will be the main focus for capital investment in schools in the coming years. The five year programme is focused on meeting these demographic needs. In this context it was not possible to advance all applications for capital funding concurrently. All school building projects, including the project for Clifden community school, will continue to be advanced incrementally over time within the context of the funding available. In light of current competing demands on the Department's capital budget, however, it is not possible to progress the project at Clifden community school to tender and construction stage at this stage.

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