Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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For the record, Foster and Allen are a great Westmeath group.

Coosan national school was originally built at its current site on the outskirts of Athlone in 1964 as a two-teacher country school. In 1987, five new classes were built while the original two classrooms were converted into a general purpose room. The current school consists of the main building, housing five mainstream classes, one language and two resource teachers with the general purpose room now again being used as a classroom. A further eight mainstream classes, along with one language, one learning support and one resource teacher, are in prefabs.

In 2005, the school enrolment stood at 247. Now it is 351, a 42% increase. Of the 351 pupils, 226, 64.5%, are being educated in prefabs. Three of these prefabs are being rented at an annual cost to the Department of Education and Skills in excess of €32,000. Two were purchased by the school's board of management and six are the property of the Department. The school no longer has any form of indoor activities area - no gym, no hall, nowhere for band practice or assembly.

The growth in enrolment is a direct result of increased housing development in the school's catchment area. Growth in school-going numbers is expected to continue over the next four to five years as many young families have moved into the area.

Having been originally sanctioned by the Department for development of a new 16-classroom school on the present site in January 2007 and with a design team having been appointed subject to Department approval, the process was put on hold due to "progression of all projects being reviewed under restructuring of the multi-annual building programme budget" in January 2008. In other words, this was due to a lack of funding and the design team was not ratified.

Communication between the Department and the school continued over the following two years, with the appointment of a departmental architect to the project and, eventually, in September 2010, the approval was reactivated and the board of management was advised by the Department to enter the process of appointing a design team under new guidelines. The team was duly contracted in accordance with the Department's requirements in January 2011. The team has presented reports to the Department to the point of completion of stage 1 of the development. Subject to departmental approval, the school is ready to seek planning permission from Westmeath County Council. In light of recent announcements regarding the Government's capital programme, as it relates to primary school developments, can the Minister of State update the House on the intention of the Department to proceed with the development of this national school?

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I am taking this topical issue on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills. 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 to clarify the current position in regard to Coosan national school, County Westmeath.

The school authority submitted an application for major capital funding in 1999. As part of the assessment 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. There are four band ratings overall, of which band one is the highest and band four the lowest. The current major project for Coosan national school has been assigned a band rating of 1.1

My Department is forecasting an increase of more than 45,000 primary pupils by the start of the 2017-18 school year. The delivery of new schools together with extension projects to meet the needs of our increasing population of school going children, will be the main focus for capital investment in the coming years. The primary aim will be to ensure every child has access to a school place. The Government's medium-term infrastructure and capital investment framework, which was published this month, includes an allocation for education capital of in excess of €2.2 billion over the five years of the plan - an average annual allocation of approximately €440 million. The investment for the next five years will provide more than 100,000 permanent school places of which 80,000 will be additional school places; the remainder will be replacement of temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation. This substantial investment will result in more than 11% of the total school population benefiting from new permanent places delivered between 2012 and 2016.

Coosan national school has 13 teachers and it had 341 pupils enrolled in the 2010-11 school year. Enrolments have increased by 24% in the school over the past five years. The brief for the major capital project for the school will provide a new 16-classroom school and a two-classroom special needs unit on the existing site. The site is approximately 4.75 acres and it is located north of the gateway town of Athlone. The existing school is a single storey structure constructed in 1953. The project is currently at an early stage of architectural planning. The design team was appointed in February 2011. Officials from the planning and building unit of my Department met with the board of management as the client for the project and its design team in May to expedite the preliminary design process.

The board of management and its design team are currently finalising the stage 1, initial sketch design report, which includes examining all design options on the site to facilitate the delivery of the required accommodation. The design team has advised that all options to be considered will comply with my Department's technical requirements. As part of the stage 1, the board of management and its design team have also held pre-planning discussions with the local authority. Upon completion, the stage 1 report will be submitted by the board of management to my Department for technical review. Thereafter, and assuming no issues arise, the next steps for the project will be the completion of stage 2(a), developed sketch design, and stage 2(b), which will include applications for planning permission, disability access certificate and fire safety certificate.

The Minister has announced his intention to publish details of the school building programme for 2012 early next month. Early in the new year ,the Department will publish a five-year plan outlining the projects to be constructed in that time. All school building projects, including that for Coosan national school, will be considered as part of this process.

Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. It is encouraging but the cost of prefabricated units at €32,000 is astronomical. I would like this school to be part of the schools building programme for 2012 and not just to be considered as part of the process.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I concur wholeheartedly with the Deputy's assessment of the resources spent on prefabricated units across the school network. The Minister is undertaking a major programme of construction which will, hopefully, negate the need to rent such units in the future. Towards the end of the Government's term, there will be a significant reduction in the number of prefabricated units throughout the country.

I take on board the Deputy's concerns about Coosan national school and I undertake to pass them on to the Minister.

Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State.