David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to share one minute of my time with Deputy Ned O'Keeffe.

Tá áthas orm go bhfuil an tAire anseo anocht. Ba mhaith liom bheith ábalta an t-ábhar seo a phlé as Gaeilge ach níl an Ghaeilge go flúirseach agam agus tá náire orm mar sin. I am disappointed I cannot address the matter as Gaeilge but the opportunity I was given to learn Irish was not as good as the opportunity given to the children to whom I will refer.

This matter is an interesting case on which I hope the Minister will be able to shed some light. I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for allowing me to raise it and I am delighted the Minister is in the House.

A developer in Midleton in east Cork has offered to supply a site and build a school for the Gaelscoil in Midleton. The overall cost is estimated at €2.5 million. He proposes to hand the school over to the Department or the school as the case may be. This proposal has been made for some time. The Minister considered this matter last June and a letter stating that the Minister was making investigations was sent on 11 November 2005. The school is very anxious that a decision is made. I am not sure of the role of the Department. The school is enlisting the help and advice of the Department rather than requesting money. It wishes to build a school that is up to specification.

The school is very successful, with 201 students and ten teachers, rising to 11 next year. It is housed in a community centre which leaves a lot to be desired. The building is reaching saturation point with no more room for additional students. There are broken floorboards and dangerous entry and exit areas. Deputy Ned O'Keeffe and I visited it last evening and we can vouch for the conditions. Corridors are narrow, there are poor toilet facilities and no staff toilets. There is a lack of storage areas for coats, bins, etc. The stairways are unsuitable for small children; there are steps between the classrooms and there is no proper outdoor play area. A local council field is used in dry weather but this is often not suitable because teenagers are using the field while the children are playing. There is no running water in three of the classrooms or in the staff room which is shared with the learning support teacher and the resource teacher. The office area is too small. The Minister's Department is paying €78,000 in rent per annum.

The OPW has been looking for a site for a school in the area for some time but without success. This seems to be a golden opportunity. Has the Department a role? Can the Minister support this project in some way or other without further delay? Will she ask her staff to advise the school management and the developer as to whether they are doing the right thing? They will supply play areas. The school will be a fantastic amenity in a growing area. In this case the developer is providing this school free of charge in the middle of a housing development. I hope the Minister will have some news.

Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to be here to discuss this matter with my colleague in east Cork, Deputy Stanton, on the opposite side. We met the school authorities last night, Rev. Cannon and the principal of the school, and they put before us the proposals which I discussed with the Minister this afternoon. She was quite helpful to me in her initial consideration of the matter. It is a unique situation where a developer, who is a friend of mine from Mallow, County Cork, is prepared to invest heavily in the Midleton area and, as Deputy Stanton said, invest €2.5 million in a new school. East Cork has many Gaelscoileanna which have been provided by the Government. There is a new school in Mallow, a fine refurbished school in Fermoy, new schools in Cobh, Youghal and Fermoy. Midleton is the only one outstanding of the six large towns in the constituency.

I have no doubt the Minister, who has such a great knowledge of Irish, is so fluent in it and has such love for it, will provide for this school in Midleton. It well deserves her attention. As a result of the explosion in numbers the school will have 11 teachers on the payroll for the school year 2006-07. I do not want to labour the issue, but as Deputy Stanton said, the school is in the community hall through the goodwill of the community in Midleton. The Minister, Deputy Martin, provided the licence for that and it was through my intervention some years ago that the existing facility was set up, but it is no longer suitable, as the Minister understands. Both I and Deputy Stanton, who has taken an interesting position on this, look forward to her reply. I am confident that as a result of the Minister's role in education and what she has demonstrated this evening we will have success and that she will accept this unique offer of a developer, probably one of the first in the country outside of Dublin.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis na Teachtaí as ucht an ábhair seo a ardú. Molaim an Teachta Stanton as an Ghaeilge atá aige a úsáid. Má leanann sé ar aghaidh ag úsáid a chuid Gaeilge, tiocfaidh feabhas air, mar tá neart Gaeilge aige.

The school in question is hugely successful as was outlined by the Deputies, having been granted permanent recognition in 2001 following its provisional recognition in 1999. Deputy O'Keeffe said the school will have 11 full-time teachers next year. It currently has a principal, eight mainstream teachers and two special education needs teachers. Enrolment has increased rapidly to the current level of 200 pupils. The rental cost of the Midleton community centre is grant-aided by the Department at the rate of 95%.

We acknowledge the need of this school and other Gaelscoileanna for permanent accommodation. In recognition of this we asked the property management section of the Office of Public Works, which deals with the acquisition of sites for new schools on behalf of my Department, to set about acquiring a site for the Midleton school. The normal procedure is that when a suitable site is identified and acquired by the OPW, the building project required to provide permanent accommodation for the school in question is considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme at the appropriate time. This process will apply in respect of Gaelscoil Mainistir na Corrán unless a more appropriate alternative solution is put in place.

In this regard officials in my Department have been made aware through the school authority — Deputy O'Keeffe has given me documentation on it also — of an offer from a local developer to provide a site and construct a 16-classroom school for Gaelscoil Mainistir na Corrán at no cost to the Gaelscoil or my Department. Obviously my Department is very willing to discuss and clarify the precise position in this regard and establish the exact details of the offer. Such altruism is very rare. We are anxious to flesh out the details.

Additional information on this proposal has been requested from the school authority and while a response has recently been received, it does not fully address all the queries raised. I understand that the development company has sought a meeting with the school authority with a view to progressing the proposal further and I expect that the school authority will then provide more details on what is proposed following that meeting. When a document detailing the exact proposal is provided to the Department of Education and Science it will receive urgent consideration.

The Department does not have any objection to the school engaging with the developer in the provision of accommodation if there is clearly no cost to either the Gaelscoil or the Department. However, the fact that the Department has been consulted in this regard indicates that this may not be the situation. If State funding is required the Department must be satisfied that public procurement procedures and other regulations are fully observed in the context of any such proposal and that the prioritisation criteria in place is not usurped.

I see the Deputies shaking their heads so I am very interested in hearing the responses to the questions raised.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I clarified the situation with the developer this evening.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There are also legal issues to be explored and addressed with regard to the ultimate ownership of such a site. If this goes ahead as indicated, who would own the site and the building? Those issues must be sorted out.

I assure Deputies Stanton and O'Keeffe that my Department is committed to working closely with the school authorities and would welcome an opportunity to achieve a permanent accommodation solution which will meet the school's needs into the future. I will give any proposal in that regard due consideration. I suggest the Deputies ask the school to address the issues raised by the building unit of the Department so that we can progress this issue.