Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I want to raise the need for permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in Leamhcán or Lucan in the Dublin Mid-West constituency. As the Minister of State and, I hope, the Minister for Education and Science, should be aware, the school opened and received formal recognition from the Department of Education and Science in 2005. It is currently located on a site owned by County Dublin Vocational Education Committee. It is operating in prefabs on that site that are rented from the VEC. That site has been identified as a suitable one for the permanent school building and was surveyed for its suitability to provide a two-stream primary school. The survey report is with the Department of Education and Science since August 2007.

The parents, teachers, pupils and board of management of the school are concerned about the lack of progress since that survey was forwarded to the Department. From inquiries they have made there have not been any discussions between the Department and the VEC on progressing the development of the site.

I reiterate that a site is available for the school, which is located in a rapidly developing area. Four new primary schools were opened subsequent to the opening of Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in 2006-07. Two of those were opened as emergency measures to cope with the demand, three of them have permanent accommodation and one of them operates from temporary accommodation.

There is a waiting list for enrolment in Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada up to 2013. The space available in the school is all nearly used. The school anticipates that it will not be able to enrol a new intake of pupils in 2010 unless permanent accommodation is provided. There is not space in the school to accommodate more pupils. I visited the school and had a look around the building recently and I can confirm that. If young people who had hoped to go to that Gaelscoil from 2010 onwards still cannot secure a place there, that will be even more pressure on the Department to open further schools as an emergency measure to cope with increased demand. If the Department provided permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada, that would help meet the demand for future school places in Lucan.

The conditions in the Gaelscoil are not satisfactory for the pupils and teachers. By September 2009 the school accommodation will be utilised to the maximum. All the rooms will be used as classrooms and there will no additional rooms available such as an assembly hall or other such rooms. As the Minister of State will be aware, it is difficult to educate children in prefabs and they are costly to run. They are inefficient in terms of energy costs. That is important, given the Government's commitment to provide energy efficient school buildings and the issue of reducing costs through such energy efficiency.

There is a lack of support for Gaelscoileanna in the country despite the Government's commitment to support the Irish language. The patron body of Gaelscoileanna, An Foras Patrunachta, which was established 15 years ago, only got funding of €50,000 from the Department this year while Educate Together, which is the patron body of fewer schools, got funding of €140,000 and the CPSMA also got considerably more funding. More than half of Gaelscoileanna operate in temporary accommodation. That has been the case for Gaelscoil na Comóige in Clondalkin for some 14 years or so.

The Labour Party has made the case that given our economic circumstances, now is the time to invest in permanent school buildings and build the badly needed primary school buildings such as the one needed for Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada. That would provide jobs for people who would otherwise be on the dole, which incurs a cost for the State. Investment in permanent school accommodation is an investment for the future and it is more energy efficient than temporary accommodation. It is wrong for primary school children to be educated in the conditions to be found in this Gaelscoil. The primary sector is falling behind in terms of the quality of school accommodation. I accept the Department has overseen the building of some new primary schools at a much faster pace in recent years. However, the pupils in many primary schools have been left behind in the Dark Ages in terms of accommodation in a way that second level students have not been. In a country that supposedly prides itself on how it treats its children, the temporary accommodation provided for them is unacceptable. Money spent on rented prefabs is money wasted while money invested in permanent accommodation is an investment in the future. The Gaelscoil would like to know the up to date position.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline the Government's strategy for capital investment in education projects and also to outline the current position in relation to the need for permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada, Lucan, County Dublin.

The Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, would like to clarify that modernising facilities in the existing building stock as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth is a significant challenge and one which Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, intends to be one of his priorities as Minister for Education and Science.

This Government has dramatically increased investment in the school building programme to almost €600 million this year. Within the lifetime of the national development plan almost €4.5 billion will be invested in schools. This 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 on 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 school building programme, again with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas.

In regard to Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada, the school is currently operating in temporary accommodation on a site that is in the ownership of County Dublin VEC. The Department is in consultation with County Dublin VEC on the possibility of using this site, together with an additional portion of VEC lands to cater for the school's long-term accommodation needs. Once the site has been acquired, the building project required to address the school's accommodation needs will be considered in the context of the multi-annual school building and modernisation programme.

A study has been conducted to determine the feasibility of this proposal. It is currently under consideration within the Department and the acquisition of the site will be considered in the context of the capital budget available to the Department for school buildings generally. In light of many competing demands on the capital budget of the Department, it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe for the acquisition of the school site at this time.

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 which indicates the urgency, type and extent of work required at a school. The band rating system involves all applications for capital funding being assessed in the planning and building 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 ultimately 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. This project has a band rating of 1.1.

I again thank the Deputy for affording me the opportunity to outline the current position in regard to the provision of permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada, Lucan, County Dublin.