Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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It is with great regret I am compelled to raise this matter. I have sought to do so in this forum and in this manner for the past three weeks and I am glad to have this opportunity to elicit answers from the Minister of State. I thought the Minister, Deputy Quinn, might make himself available, but I expect the reply the Minister of State will give is based on consultation with him. I hope his reply will address the disappointment, frustration and despair evident among the staff, pupils and parents and the extended community of Edenderry with regard to Scoil Bhríde and Gaelscoil Éadan Doire. Such emotions result from recent contact made by the Department to the two principals concerned. They were asked by the Department to apply for increased temporary accommodation to meet their enrolment needs in September 2013.

Such requests are normally sought and made in January of the preceding year, at the latest. Even more alarming and galling, however, is that these schools had been included in the rapid delivery programme in December 2011. In the first instance, they followed applications highlighting the request for their establishment to meet the demand arising from population growth in Edenderry. Subsequently, Scoil Bhríde was established in 2007 and located on temporary accommodation in the grounds of Edenderry GAA club. The school's pupil numbers have grown annually to a current total of 333, with 70 new pupils enrolled for September 2013.

In addition to the mainstream school, there are four autistic spectrum disorder, or ASD, special classes. The new school was designed to accommodate two more ASD classes with waiting lists already in place for them.

Gaelscoil Éadan Doire was founded in 2008 and operates in an old factory which is both dangerous and unhealthy. Many classrooms have no windows and no yard outside. The space available cannot be further partitioned. The staff are struggling on a daily basis to keep the school open.

The beauty of these projects was, and is, that they are to be built on one site. The site was purchased by the State and appropriately zoned by Offaly County Council. It was to be serviced by a new link road, which was agreed in conjunction with the locality and the local authority. The schools were designed by the relevant section in the Department of Education and Skills. School accommodation was agreed, while planning was sought and granted. Tenders were sought and agreed, while contracts and schedules were agreed by the OPW in conjunction and co-operation with the schools and their boards of management. This was before the bombshell decision which I mentioned earlier.

The rapid delivery programme was developed in 2007. It was an innovative response to the need to deliver schools quickly in areas of population growth and where existing provisions could not meet demand. In a press release last September, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, celebrated a number of projects under this scheme. For example, the 2012 programme involved four new Dublin schools in Mulhuddart, Balbriggan, Swords and Lucan, as well as two new extensions in Swords and Portarlington. They delivered 1,700 additional places with pupils benefiting from modern, efficient buildings with an improved learning environment. I have seen this at first hand in Tullamore where an Educate Together facility was built in this format.

The Minister of State and his Government colleagues know the costs and benefits involved. They also know the strains concerning increased school numbers, as evidenced by today's CSO report. Last September, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, stated that rapid delivery programmes provide fantastic, modern school accommodation. If that is so, why have the Minister and the Minister of State turned their backs on these schools, given the commitments, temporary rental accommodation costs, poor conditions and bona fideefforts by school management?

I am asking for this situation to be resolved forthwith. The Department should re-engage with the commitment that was given for September 2013. Even at this stage, if the agreed contracts and tenders were put in place, we could have that facility by October or November. I ask the Minister of State to respond positively considering that he has had three weeks' notice of my intention to raise this matter concerning the current situation in Edenderry.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me an opportunity to outline to the House my Department's position regarding the construction of new accommodation for Scoil Bhríde, Edenderry and Gaelscoil Éadan Doire.

My priority is to ensure that there is sufficient school accommodation to meet projected pupil enrolment increases into the future. The five-year capital investment programme announced in March 2012 outlines all the major school projects that will commence construction over the duration of that plan. The investment in that programme is of the order of €2 billion.

My Department is endeavouring to maximise the efficient use of all available capacity in the public sector to assist in the delivery of the schools programme. In that context, the Edenderry projects referred to by the Deputy are two out of 15 schools where responsibility for the delivery of these projects was devolved to the Office of Public Works.

A service level agreement is in place between my Department and the Office of Public Works which outlines the roles and responsibilities of each of the parties in the delivery of education projects. It is a central tenet of devolution that responsibility for the delivery of these projects, within certain agreed parameters as laid down in the service level agreement, rests with the Office of Public Works.

The Edenderry school projects were tendered by the OPW in early 2013. The OPW recently forwarded a tender report for these two school projects to my Department together with two other schools. My Department, in consultation with the OPW, is currently considering these documents. These projects are categorised on the five-year capital programme as projects due to go to construction in 2013.

There will be some delay in the projects going to construction, but I can assure the Deputy that they are being progressed so that the accommodation required for the two schools will be provided at the earliest possible date within the five-year construction programme. I also want to assure the Deputy that my Department is in contact with the schools concerned to ensure that there is sufficient accommodation for September 2013.

I thank the Deputy again for giving me the opportunity to outline the current position to the House.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response, but I know it was in the five-year building programme. The students, staff and local community also know this. That is why the council designated the site and why planning was agreed. That is also why the local authority made a commitment to a contract to provide a link road. The Minister of State should not tell me what I already know. I know those two schools were among the 15 approved. I also know there was a service level agreement between the Department and the OPW. I know the OPW agreed a tender document and sent it to the Department.

What I cannot understand, however, is why all of a sudden the Minister of State is saying it will be built within the five-year programme. It is far removed from the commitments that he, his party and the Government made to the people of that town when they said it would be up and running in September this year. That is far removed from the commitments the principals made to the staff, the community and parents when they referred to the enrolment prospects for September 2013. What about the people who enrolled their children for ASD classes? The Minister of State should explain the delay. Is there a problem with funding? Did the Department not provide adequately for these schools which were given commitments? I want straight answers. I do not want to hear that they will be built within the five-year programme. Everybody knew that. The Minister of State was glad to announce that they would be built by September 2013. He asked the principals, boards of management, the local authority and the community to live up to his expectations. They did so but the Minister of State should now live up to theirs. He should take the responsibility he has been given by the Taoiseach and live up to the commitments he has made. God knows, he has made enough U-turns in the last two years. He should be honest and tell me what is causing the delay. If we know what the delay is, let us deal with it and put the facility in place this year rather than within the next four years.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the OPW entered into a service level agreement with my Department to deliver these and a number of other schools nationally. The reason the expertise and capacity within the OPW for the delivery of buildings of this kind was exercised and used was because we wanted to ensure that all schools outlined in the five-year capital programme would be delivered within that five-year timeframe. The Minister and his officials in the building unit in Tullamore were innovative in bringing in the expertise, knowledge and capacity to deliver from the OPW to assist in this ambitious five-year building programme.

As regards the Edenderry issue, the OPW has submitted the outcome of that tender process to my Department. It is being actively considered currently by the Department. It is untrue, as the Deputy said, that the Department has turned its back on this community. It most certainly has not. The Department is actively engaging with the OPW and it is more than confident that the schools will be delivered to this community. It is acknowledged that the community badly needs this investment.

The delivery of the schools will happen, albeit not within the original timeframe envisaged, but certainly as soon as is physically possible.