Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am pleased to have the opportunity of raising this issue again. It concerns a new school for Gaelscoil Bharra in Cabra, an issue I have been raising virtually every year I have been a Member of the Dáil. Gaelscoil Bharra is located just off Fassaugh Avenue and has been in prefabricated buildings since it was founded 13 years ago. I am blue in the face raising the issue with the Minister and trying to determine when some movement will take place on the part of the Department of Education and Science to replace the prefabricated buildings with a new school, which the children and the parents have been requesting all those years.

Recent figures indicated that 40,000 pupils are educated in prefabricated buildings but those prefabs would be extensions to the original school building. In this case the entire school building is prefabricated. This has been the case for the past 13 years and it is not good enough. During the winter time the buildings are cold, damp and unsuitable for children. During the summer time they are too hot, and when it rains there are pools of water everywhere, including in the yard, and toilets block up. It is a nightmare for everybody concerned — the staff, the pupils and their parents.

I raise this issue more than once a year and receive a variation of the same answer, namely, that the Department of Education and Science is doing its best and that it is on the lookout for a site for a permanent school but, strangely, 13 years later those people from the Department who have been out searching for a site still have not discovered one. I hope this might be the night the Minister of State will give me the good news that new eagle-eyed civil servants in the Department of Education and Science have at last discovered a suitable site.

Meanwhile, parents are concerned about their children's health and the conditions under which they are educated. The children themselves suffer physically and educationally from the lack of good quality services. Also, the parents and the staff are constantly fundraising to try to plug some of the gaps in maintaining the unsuitable buildings that are now well past their sell-by date.

We are at the end of the construction boom and as we move into something of a recession and there is no longer an emphasis on the construction of residential dwellings, there may be scope for moving the construction industry into providing much needed infrastructure of this nature. I am sure many developers would be delighted to get contracts to build schools. Those contracts would not be that much different from the type of contracts they would get for housing estates. This might be an opportunity for the Government to retain its spending power to do whatever borrowing is necessary. It is the way to go. There is the opportunity to do that and to try to keep the construction industry moving. If that is the decision of the Government, it will be able to address the problem of the large number of prefabs and the need to have permanent school structures constructed.

I have come into this House too often asking that something suitable in the line of an educational facility be provided for children who should be cherished by the nation, as we all know. That is not the case with these particular children. The Minister of State might have some good information for me tonight.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I wish I could impart some good information on my first Adjournment Debate in response to Deputy Costello.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the Government's strategy for capital investment in education projects and also to outline the current position regarding the future plans for Gaelscoil Bharra, Cabra.

Modernising facilities in our existing building projects as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth, is a significant challenge and something I understand will be one of the priorities of the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe.

The Government has already dramatically increased investment in the schools building programme to almost €600 million this year. Under the lifetime of the national development plan, almost €4.5 billion will be invested in schools. That is an unprecedented level of capital investment which reflects the commitment of the Government to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post-primary schools.

It will underpin a particular emphasis on the delivery of additional school places in rapidly developing areas while continuing to develop the Government's commitment to delivering improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary accommodation throughout the country. It will also enable the purchase of sites to facilitate the smooth delivery of the schools building programme, again with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas.

On the specific matter raised by Deputy Costello, the Office of Public Works, which acts on behalf of the Department of Education and Science in regard to site acquisitions generally, had been requested to source a greenfield site for this Gaelscoil. On foot of advertising, no proposals were received for a greenfield site in the Cabra area. Further to that, the OPW was requested by the Department to look into building a permanent school on the existing temporary site.

The further progression of the acquisition of this site will be considered in the context of the capital budget available to the Department for school buildings generally. The Department is not in a position to say at this stage when the acquisition will be concluded.

I thank the Deputy and wish I could have been a font of knowledge but, unfortunately, I cannot be one. I am glad to have the opportunity to outline the current position to the House.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I could have written that response for the Minister of State.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I guessed that.