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

I thank Deputy Cassells for raising this issue and I can understand his concern. The backdrop to this, which he probably understands, is the pressure I am under to deliver new school places. Each year we have to deliver at least 15,000 new school places and 5,000 absolutely essential replacements, and, therefore, the Department has to become very selective and prioritise very carefully. Obviously the first emphasis has to be where new places are not available and have to be built. As my written reply states, there is pressure at primary level, with about 25,000 pupils having to be provided for over three years, and the position is similar at second level, which gives the overall figure of 15,000-plus per year. That is the backdrop and it takes up about 80% of the budget. It is for this reason that, when this application was made to convert two existing classrooms into a general purpose room and to build two new classrooms and a resource room, the Department turned it down. In doing so, it looked at pupil number trends, which have been pretty stable in the past few years, and this resulted in the turning down of the school, as the Deputy has outlined.

The Deputy asked that this be re-examined. I understand the school, pretty much simultaneously, has resubmitted the application and the school authorities have asked that this be reconsidered. I note the points the Deputy is making, which are obviously part of the reconsideration, including the added teacher. I also note the school has made an application in respect of the toilets under the summer works scheme and that has yet to be decided. It is in category five under the summer works scheme, which is still under consideration and a decision will have to be made on that.

The Deputy also spoke on the issue of support for SNAs and resource teachers. Bearing in mind the points he has made and the submission the authority has made, I will ask the Department to look afresh at this and to reconsider the application. The difficulty I have is that we are against this backdrop of pressure on our capital budget to deliver the new build that is absolutely essential because, otherwise, children will have no place to go. That has forced us to be very strict in regard to which of the extensions that are not meeting demographic need we can cater for. I will convey the concerns of the Deputy in the context of this reconsideration of the submission made by the school.

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