Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I can well understand the concern of the school in Waterville and many others.

I will put the Deputy in the picture in terms of the capital budget, the backdrop against which I must deal with requests such as the one he has made. Every year we must provide approximately 20,000 new school places which roughly are split as follows: 15,000 for new students, given that there is a population bulge, and 5,000 replacement school places. That gives the Deputy an indication of the pressure on the budget.

The Deputy outlined the history of the school in question. St. Finian's national school did make an application in December 2015 to the Department requesting a new school and the Department did engage with it, as the Deputy indicated, last August. The Department examined school enrolments, the building and other factors. At that stage it indicated that it would not be possible to advance a major project at that time but that it was open to undertaking work to improve the school's facilities. Having been fairly stable, last year there was a significant increase in enrolment numbers at the school from 99 pupils to 111, just short of the number required for the appointment of a new teacher. My Department has indicated to the school that it could seek to provide for additional needs with respect to an additional teacher coming on-stream.

I must be honest and say that when one talks about a totally new build, a project must compete with all other projects where currently there is no accommodation available for pupils. That is the difficulty. That said, I am aware that the school submitted technical reports this month to my Department and we will assess them. Only last year a meeting was held to address the future needs of the school. We will look afresh in the building unit at the technical reports, but the backdrop of planning is against a very tight capital budget and the Department must decide on priorities on a rigorous technical appraisal. We will look at the new technical documents submitted.

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