Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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I appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue. It concerns the proposed Educate Together national school in Doughiska, Galway, which is one of the most rapidly expanding suburbs of Galway with perhaps the highest increase in new families.

A primary school had been proposed by Educate Together and 170 children had been signed up for pre-enrolment. The local committee has decided not to proceed in the absence of any indication of a permanent home for the school. A decision was taken centrally by Educate Together that, because most of its facilities are in temporary buildings, it will not proceed with applications unless there is some indication of a permanent site. The responsibility for a permanent site falls on the Department of Education and Science and Galway City Council.

Educate Together, in making its decision, pointed out that it had opened 23 schools since 2000, only one of which occupies permanent accommodation. Each year, Educate Together has added to the assembly line of schools in temporary accommodation with no progress in the number moving into permanent accommodation. Today, of the 41 Educate Together schools, 26 are in temporary accommodation, only one new school building is in construction and two are in architectural planning. Some 80% of these schools are in areas of rapidly expanding population.

The Minister of State will appreciate the anomaly that arises from the fact that Educate Together provides a choice of primary education, stressing as it does multi and non-denominational education, child-centred education and democratic management involving parents, but at present receives less than 1% of the total primary facilities in this country.

This week, we have heard references to the rights of the child. Ireland signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and ratified it in 1992 without reservation. The UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which this Minister of State, who led a delegation to Geneva, will be aware, has asked the Government to facilitate choice in primary education. Put bluntly, people should have the choice between faith-based education at primary level and a more intercultural, multi and non-denominational education with parents as patrons. Educate Together schools are not being treated fairly.

I raise the issue of one particular school this evening. It is little less than scandalous and an outrage that planning permission can be given to developers to build hundreds, and in some cases more than a thousand, houses without the necessary educational facilities. If one wants to provide a place for one's child, be part of a voluntary committee and drag oneself through the seven stages of application, all one needs do is contrast the speed of the permission granted to the developer with the long wait for schools. In this case, 170 children had been pre-enrolled but the committee has been wound up because it cannot continue in the absence of any indication of a permanent location. The school was scheduled for September 2006. The matter is extremely urgent and I ask the Minister of State to at least give an undertaking that the Department of Education and Science will enter into talks with Galway City Council about the provision of a site for this facility.

That is a specific point I wished to make about a school in the city in which I live. On the more general issue of providing permanent sites for the option that is Educate Together, I ask the Minister of State to raise with the Minister and with Cabinet the issues which have been brought forward and agreed not just with the UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but previously with the Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, two prestigious UN committees whose opinions I know the Minister will accord the weight they deserve. They have reasonably suggested that such choice in primary education is important, as it is in terms of constitutional development, circumstances in which we find ourselves at present. It is also important in terms of making provision for our children.

I stress, on behalf of the parents and children, the urgency of the need for the Department to hold talks with the planning department of Galway City Council to resolve this issue.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I make this reply on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it affords the Minister the opportunity to outline the open and transparent process in place for the recognition of new primary schools and the position concerning the proposed Educate Together school in Doughiska.

The new schools advisory committee, NSAC, an independent body, assesses all applications for recognition against published criteria. It conducts an open and transparent public consultation process as part of this assessment. The committee's annual programme of work culminates in a report with recommendations on the granting of recognition to applicants. The Department of Education and Science is happy to support all new schools where it has been clearly demonstrated, in accordance with the criteria, that a demand exists.

This process has resulted in the establishment of a significant number of new multidenominational primary schools in recent years. Patrons wishing to establish new schools must identify the level of demand for the provision of education proposed and that potential enrolment will meet certain minimum targets. Under this process, all patron bodies are treated on an equal footing. Schools that meet the criteria are generally awarded provisional recognition at the outset. The question of permanent recognition is considered when the school's long-term viability has been demonstrated and the school is operating in accordance with the relevant provisions governing the operation of primary schools.

It is a condition of provisional recognition that the patron provides suitable accommodation in the stated area, which must be capable of meeting the needs of the school. When permanent recognition is granted to a school, the Department will then consider an application for permanent accommodation from the school authorities.

Turning to the specific matter in hand, following consideration by the new schools advisory committee, the Department granted recognition to a new national school in Galway city east under the patronage of Educate Together. While the application was for a September 2006 start-up, Educate Together advised the Department in April 2006 that it was unable to find suitable accommodation and wished to preserve this recognition to September 2007 and the Department agreed with this request.

The Deputy may wish to note that the Department of Education and Science has previously announced, as part of the Department's public private partnership programme 2005-09, the provision of accommodation for a primary and post-primary school in the Doughiska location by way of a shared campus. The project has already been assigned a band 1 priority rating under the published prioritisation criteria for largescale building projects. This is the highest banding possible and is a clear indication of the priority the Department attaches to the delivery of the project. I hope the discussion to which Deputy Michael Higgins referred as taking place between Galway City Council and the Department can be brought to a speedy conclusion. It is clear from the Minister's reply this evening that there is no resources issue on the part of the Department of Education and Science. The project has been assigned the highest possible priority in terms of allocation of resources within the Department. I hope that whatever outstanding issues exist between the Department and the city council can be resolved so that a rapid identification of a site, as distinct from a locale, can be made.

On the wider issues raised by the Deputy, I attended a hearing in Geneva in September on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and dealt there with the issues pertaining to our education system. The new schools advisory process is designed to ensure equality of access for all the different patrons recognised under the education legislation in the establishment of primary schools. It is important that the choice of parents in this matter, a constitutional right, is respected and facilitated by the State.

In addition, I accept that because Educate Together is a new patron, a substantial number of schools are still in temporary accommodation. The standard of temporary accommodation is higher than it was in the past, but every effort is being made in the Department to progress these schools into permanent accommodation on sites acquired for that purpose.