Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I have raised this issue a number of times on the Adjournment and tabled various questions to the Minister for Education and Science. Gaelscoil Bharra, a scoil lán-Ghaelach, was founded in 1996 but has still not reached the planning process for a school building, even though the school has shown its viability from the beginning, with more pupils than it can cater for. All along the line, however, it has fallen foul of negligence, lack of communication and broken promises.

The school is located in an antiquated prefabricated building. After 13 years, the Minister of State can guess what conditions are like on a day like this. The building leaks when it is raining and it is too hot and stuffy when the sun shines. The toilets are such that most of the pupils can no longer go to them because they cannot stomach using them without getting sick. The building is in a deplorable state. As far back as February 2000, the then inspector from the Department of Education and Science wrote that the deplorable state of the temporary accommodation made it imperative that the planning process be initiated as soon as possible. That was nine years ago and since then the prefabricated building has deteriorated to a terrible extent. This is no way to treat the children of the nation, their parents or the staff, who must also put up with those conditions on a daily basis. Certainly, the INTO is not too happy with the situation.

It was not until the school was granted a freedom of information request that it discovered the school planning section had admitted the request for acquisition of a site had fallen "through the cracks" and had not been forwarded to the OPW for more than four years. All that critical time was lost when the school could have been built.

It was not until late last year that the Department of Education and Science finally, after much huffing and puffing, and pressure from myself and others, put together the process of acquiring the existing temporary site from the local GAA club, Naomh Fionnbarra. It seeks to acquire a long-term lease from Dublin City Council, which owns the site, but we do not know the terms or length of the lease or if agreement has been reached between the Department and the local authority. When the lease is signed, we must go through the planning process, which could take another year at least.

I am calling for the Minister for Education and Science to include the Gaelscoil project immediately in his multi-annual school building and modernisation programme and, in view of the four year delay due to the Department's negligence during which the building could have been built, for the new permanent school for which Gaelscoil Bharra has waited 13 years to be fast-tracked and completed as quickly as possible.

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this 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 in relation to the future plans for Gaelscoil Bharra, Cabra.

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 is one of the priorities of the Minister for Education and Science. This Government has dramatically increased investment in the school building programme to €656 million this year. 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 this 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.

The Office of Public Works, which acts on behalf of the Department in relation 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 this, the OPW was requested by the Department to look into building a permanent school on the existing temporary site. To pursue this further, meetings have taken place between the Department and Dublin City Council regarding the potential availability of this site and last year the Department wrote to the council with a proposal suggesting that a lease arrangement be put in place.

In January this year, officials from the Department again met with the city council and representatives of St. Finbar's GAA club where the school is currently located to further discuss this issue of entering into a lease arrangement with the city council which, in time, will require the GAA club to surrender its interest on some of the lands required for a building project.

Officials from the Department met directly with representatives from the GAA club yesterday to explore with the club various design options. The club indicated that it would consider the issues raised and would respond formally to the Department in the coming days. This response will allow the Department to engage with the city council on its assessment of the site suitability. Upon receipt of the club's views, the Department will revert to the city council on the matter.

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. I am not in a position to say at this stage when the acquisition will be concluded.

I again thank the Deputy for affording me the opportunity to outline to the House the current position on the future plans for Gaelscoil Bharra, Cabra.