Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise in the Dáil this issue which is obviously causing a great deal of confusion in my constituency and in the constituencies of Dublin North and Dublin North-East.

As the Minister may be aware, an announcement was made by Fingal County Council to the effect that somewhere between 13 and 17 school sites would be acquired in a very short period to provide much needed primary and secondary schools by September 2008, apparently under a form of new design and build contracts into which the Department is entering. Since then it has been impossible to establish whether the Department stands over this announcement or the location of any of these 13 sites. Are they in Balbriggan, Swords, Castleknock, Blanchardstown? We do not need to know their exact location but roughly whereabouts in our county of nearly 250,000 people these school sites will be.

Can the Department assure us that all these schools will be in place by September 2008? I have grave doubts about that. In many cases the sites are not acquired. When they are acquired, planning permission will take at least three months with the council and in some cases another four to five months through An Bord Pleanála. Then the schools must be built.

It seems this announcement made by Fingal County Council, but in the presence of Department of Education and Science officials, was quite irresponsible. I am asking for clarity from the Department. Does it stand over that announcement, will it inform the House where these sites are and can it guarantee parents and children in Dublin 15, Dublin North and Dublin North-East, who are concerned that just like last year they will not have a school to which to send their children, that these 13 schools will be in place and open by September 2008? If not, how many will be and how long will it take for all 13 to be delivered?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I am replying to this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. I thank Deputy Varadkar for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the proactive approach being taken by the Department of Education and Science to provide up to 100,000 extra pupil places in rapidly developing areas throughout the country over the lifetime of the new national development plan.

Demand for additional school accommodation has escalated considerably in recent years due mainly to factors which include the growth in the school-going population in rapidly developing areas, including the impact of inward migration; the rapid expansion in teacher numbers, particularly in the area of special needs; the demands to cater for diversity through the recognition of new Gaelscoileanna and Educate Together schools; and population movements from older, more established urban areas to outer suburban areas.

Demographic increases in population are now the main driver of growth in demand for school accommodation. In the next five years alone, the Department is planning provision for a minimum increase in the national primary school-going population of up to 58,000 pupils.

The Department uses a number of sources of information to plan for the correct level of school accommodation. One of the most important sources is the local authority area development planning process. The Department is included among the prescribed authorities to which local authorities are statutorily obliged to send draft development plans or proposed variations to development plans. As a matter of course, there is ongoing liaison with local authorities to establish the location, scale and pace of any major proposed developments and their possible implications for school provision. Site reservations for new schools are made under this process.

A substantial amount of the time and the resources of the Department's school planning section are dedicated to ongoing contacts with the local authorities, especially in Dublin and within the Dublin commuter belt, to monitor housing development and to establish the timescale for the delivery of extra school accommodation. The Department is also represented on various bodies such as the Adamstown and Hansfield strategic development zone steering committees and the North Fringe Forum steering committee, among others, to obtain first-hand information on matters of relevance to school provision.

A practical example of positive output from these contacts is the arrangement entered into with Fingal County Council known as the Fingal school model agreement. Under this agreement, the Department and Fingal County Council have been working in partnership in recent years to acquire land for schools. While sites have already been acquired as a result of this co-operation, the focus at present is on finalising arrangements for the sites needed for the 2008 school year. The ability of the Department to open the required number of new schools in the Fingal area for next September is contingent on the lands in question being acquired very soon.

While the Minister for Education and Science is encouraged by the council's recent positive statement, she is also conscious that work on acquiring most of the sites has been ongoing for two years and she is anxious that their acquisition is finalised as soon as possible. To ensure the school buildings in question can be provided in record time, the Department has tendered for contractors to commence the construction of the schools off-site while planning permission is being sought. The system-built model of building schools off-site while planning permission is being sought has also already been used by the Department this year. It is planned to use it more widely as a means of delivering high quality school buildings in as little as four months.

The Government is aware of the school needs of the Fingal area and is doing all it can to deliver extra school places as quickly as possible. However, I wish to point out that while the scale of the work under way in Fingal is particularly newsworthy, the Department has in fact developed much closer working relations with local authorities all over the country in recent years and similar levels of activity are ongoing in all rapidly developing areas throughout the country.

Again, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter which has allowed me to illustrate both the extent of the work being carried out with local authorities and the importance which the Department of Education and Science attaches to relationships with them.