Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I am disappointed the Minister for Education and Science is not present for the debate. My concern relates to Holy Trinity national school in Leopardstown, which has 108 pupils. A further 70 have been enrolled for September 2009, which is the equivalent of two junior infant classes. The school has no permanent buildings and it operates out of five prefabs. It has no play or PE facilities and it has no facilities for a resource teacher. The cost of the prefabs to date, together with the basic works required to facilitate the operation of the school, is more than €1 million. The prefabs are rented at a cost of €20,000 per classroom per year. With each year that passes, €100,000 is spent on the rental of such buildings.

In 2006 the school board was promised a permanent school. The architectural plans were submitted in final form in May 2008. When I sought to ascertain by way of parliamentary question on 24 September 2008 whether the Minister would sanction the project moving forward, he replied, "In light of current competing demands on the capital budget of the Department, it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe for the progression of this project at this time."

The population serviced by the school has increased by 35% in four years and it is expected to reach 41,000 by 2016. There is an urgent need for the Minister to sanction the provision of permanent buildings for this school and there is no particular reason such sanction and construction cannot be fast-tracked. Schools confronted by similar population growth in north Dublin were fast-tracked, granted planning permission and construction was sanctioned. Will the Minister recognise the needs of this community and sanction the construction of these badly need buildings without further delay?

Only ten days ago, the Minister announced plans for 25 new schools building projects and he indicated he would not sanction further projects in the primary sector until next spring. This primary school needs to be constructed. There is no reason the families and children living in Leopardstown should be subject to the discrimination they are clearly suffering. No permanent classroom has been sanctioned in the primary sector in south Dublin for more than 15 years. I ask the Minister to give this project the priority to which it is entitled in order that the school board can move forward from the architectural planning stage to make a formal planning application to Dún Laoighaire-Rathdown County Council and then to proceed to tender.

I am asking that the funds for the construction of the school be made available and that it be fast-tracked for a particular reason, that the school will not be able to cope with pupil demand without either the construction of a permanent school building or additional prefabs being obtained. However, there is no space for further prefabs. If they are acquired, they will impinge on the site designated for the construction of the permanent school building, adding to the difficulties of the project going ahead. An alternative site for prefabs would need to be found while the construction took place.

The State is wasting money on rental when it could be invested in the construction of the badly needed permanent school building. It would benefit the children, the parents and the teachers and provide the children with the types of play area, physical education facility and resource teaching classroom that they need and that other schools have.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Shatter for raising this matter. I am answering on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science. This is an opportunity for me to outline to the Dáil the Department's capital programme of works for 2008 and the current position with regard to Holy Trinity national school, Glencairn, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.

All applications for capital funding are assessed in the modernisation and policy unit of the Department. The assessment process determines the extent and type of need presenting based on the demographics of an area, proposed housing developments, condition of buildings, site capacity, etc., leading to an appropriate accommodation solution. As part of this process, a project is assigned a band rating under published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects. These criteria were devised following consultation with the education partners.

Projects are selected for inclusion in the school building and modernisation programme on the basis of priority of need. This is reflected in the band rating assigned to a project. A proposed building project moves through the system commensurate with the band rating assigned to it. The project for Holy Trinity national school has been assigned a priority rating in band one.

As the Deputy will probably be aware, almost €600 million in public funding is being provided for school buildings this year. This will enable the completion of work on 67 large-scale primary schools projects, which will deliver 7,000 additional permanent school places in new schools and 2,300 additional permanent school places in existing schools. Construction work on 150 devolved projects under the permanent accommodation scheme will provide 8,000 additional places in existing primary schools. In the post-primary sector, construction work will be completed on 19 large-scale projects, which will provide 2,400 permanent school places in four new schools and additional accommodation and refurbishment works in 15 schools that will benefit more than 7,000 pupils. Sites will be purchased to facilitate the smooth delivery of the school building programme, particularly in rapidly developing areas, and new projects will be progressed through architectural planning and design stages.

On 29 September, the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, announced a further tranche of projects to progress through the school building programme, including five primary and two post-primary projects to prepare to go to site before the end of 2008, 12 primary and three post-primary projects to proceed to tender with a view to going on site in the first half of 2009, and three primary schools to progress up to and including application for planning permission and preparation of tender documents with a view to the earliest possible date to site. In 2008, construction is also due to start on the first bundle of PPP schools, while further ones will be offered to the market next year with a view to building work commencing in later years.

This is a significant programme of work by any standards and, while there will continue to be a focus during the year on providing extra places in developing areas, the Department will also be delivering improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary school accommodation throughout the country. The emphasis, however, will be on new schools and extensions to provide additionality in rapidly developing areas.

Holy Trinity national school, Glencairn, Leopardstown, Dublin 18 is a co-educational primary school. The enrolment as at 30 September 2007 was 75 pupils.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Today it has 108 pupils.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I will check on that for the Deputy. The school has a current staff of one principal, two mainstream assistants, one developing post, one permanent resource teacher, one permanent learning support teacher and one temporary language support teacher.

In January 2005, the school authority submitted an application to the Department for large-scale capital funding for an extension project. An assessment of the projected enrolment trends, demographic trends and the housing developments in the area has been carried out and has determined the long-term projected staffing for a 24-classroom school. The building project is in the early stages of architectural planning and a revised stage two is currently being examined. The building project is being considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Over the lifetime of the national development plan, the Government will provide funding of €4.5 billion for school buildings. This will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State and will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where they are needed. The investment will allow the Department to continue the school building programme, which commenced during the lifetime of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested in school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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That tells us nothing about the timeframe for Holy Trinity national school.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy made a strong case and I will pass it on to the Minister, who was not available to attend the House this evening.