Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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56. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of progress on secondary school extensions in south County Kildare to deal with increased demand at second level in the area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42106/18]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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57. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the ongoing review of secondary school provision in south County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42107/18]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The first of my questions is on progress on secondary school extensions. I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister, Deputy McHugh, who I consider a good friend, on his elevation to a full Cabinet position. It is a position he is well capable of handling from his experience in the House. It is a great honour for him and his family and a testament to the work he has done as a Deputy representing Donegal. I look forward to working with the Minister and making him very aware of all the challenges we face in south Kildare in the education area.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy whose kind words I appreciate. I look forward to working with him on a number of important education matters. No doubt, the Ceann Comhairle will be very interested in a number of these issues also.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 56 and 57 together.

The Department is currently advancing building projects in a number of post-primary schools in the south Kildare school planning area and these projects will, when completed, provide additional capacity in the region of 1,700 school places. The current status of each of these projects is as follows. At St. Conleth's community college, Newbridge, the project is on site and is due to be completed shortly. At Athy community college, the project brief has been completed and the project has been devolved to Kildare and Wicklow ETB for delivery. At Cross and Passion secondary school, Kilcullen, the project is at project brief stage. At Patrician College, Newbridge, the project is at project brief stage and at St. Paul's secondary school, Monasterevin, the project is at stage 2(b), detailed design stage. Recently, my predecessor, Deputy Richard Bruton, announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next four years, 2019 to 2022. In addition to the new schools announced, there will be a need for further school accommodation in other areas in the future.

While the announcement did not include a new post-primary school in the south Kildare school planning areas, a review of provision at post-primary school level across the school planning areas in south Kildare is now well advanced and the outcome will be made available by the end of October. The review will include an assessment of the extent to which projected needs in the area will be met from the additional capacity being provided by the projects already approved and how any specific additional needs will be best catered for, recognising the importance of maintaining a balance between existing and any additional school provision.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his response. Given that the questions are grouped, I have a fair number of points to make. I will stick to the matter of school extensions in this first supplementary contribution. As the Ceann Comhairle knows well, the project at St. Paul's school in Monasterevin has been beset by numerous delays, not all of which were caused by the Department of Education and Skills. While the project is at pre-qualification of contractors stage, we must ensure there is no delay in moving to tender. I reassured parents this week that the change of Minister would not have any impact on that and that the Department will stand ready. I will stay in touch with the Minister on that one as, I am sure, will the Ceann Comhairle. Athy community college has been devolved and a service-level agreement has been established with Kildare and Wicklow ETB. There are now 440 pupils in that school but it was built for 400 and needs to be extended to accommodate 1,000 pupils. There are prefabricated buildings on site and more are coming while the school is under significant pressure. We cannot have a delay there. I am delighted to see the project for Patrician College in Newbridge go to the NDFA. The next step is planning and design and we must keep pushing because there is significant pressure on school places in the Newbridge-Kildare area.

There has been a delay in the opening of the extension to St. Conleth's and that has had a particular impact on six pupils with mild to moderate intellectual and special educational needs. This is causing serious distress. Officials in the Department made the point previously that they would stand with the parents if there were any delays.

The Ceann Comhairle and other public representatives in the area have worked on this matter as well. What the parents have been offered to date, namely, home tuition, whereby they must find tutors, is not sufficient. Huge distress has been caused to those parents who thought they would have places in September. In fairness to the principal of the school, it is not her fault. She is doing her best to manage a very difficult situation. I ask that the special education section of the Department give every support to these parents and that we try to get these six pupils into their special accommodation as soon as possible.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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There are a number of schools in the area. I will say one thing about the ongoing building programme and capital plan. In my very short time in the job, I have learned that I cannot walk from one end of a corridor to the other without meeting a Deputy or Senator who is looking for information on a project in the capital plan. In fairness, the previous Minister, Deputy Bruton, introduced a communication system whereby the website shows the different stages at which the projects stand. It is important that we can communicate any changes in this regard.

As for the specific schools to which the Deputy refers, if any further information is needed or if the Deputy's colleagues in the Kildare South constituency need to sit down with one of the officials in the building unit, I would be happy to organise that.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. This is our opening shot in a process whereby I will make him familiar with the schools in south Kildare. We will continue to brief him on the impact of pressures relating to places as they develop. I welcome his original response regarding a review of the overall demographics of Kildare and pressure on places. I welcome the fact that we are very close to a final announcement on the need for increased provision beyond these extensions.

The South Kildare Educate Together campaign was established in 2014. Since then, we have had meetings with two taoisigh, two Ministers for Education and Skills and departmental officials. Deputy McHugh is the third Minister in the job and we still have not gone away. There is huge demand from parents in Kildare South who have children at primary level for improved provision of choice at second level as well. The Department should not be surprised by this demand. Two Educate Together primary schools were opened a number of years ago in south Kildare. The Educate Together primary school in Kildare town this year has a sixth class for the first time. The parents involved travelled to Portlaoise to look at a second-level Educate Together school because they do not have that option in Kildare south, and this need to be addressed.

The provision of a new school would require all the decisions on the patronage process to be made and site selection and acquisition would take a long time. The review in the Department will show that we do not have much time. Two years ago I stated that one very good fit to work with the Educate Together campaign and to address these issues of pressure on spaces would be to look at the Curragh post-primary school, which absolutely deserves a new building. There are great staff and students working in very difficult circumstances. A partnership or joint patronage process with Educate Together and a new school building for the Curragh could deliver increased capacity in an area between two very big towns, Kildare and Newbridge, that are at bursting point. It could attract pupils from primary schools such as those in Athgarvan, Ballysax and Suncroft and many more in the area that all feed into those towns at present. This would rejuvenate the area. It would be a very overdue shot in the arm for the staff and students of that school. Irrespective of the location of the site and whether the Department of Defence works with us on the provision of a new site on the camp or whether we have a new site outside of the Curragh but in the surrounding area, this is probably the most common-sense approach that would give us that increased capacity as quickly as possible.

I have no doubt that the most recent figures the Minister's officials possess - these were compiled at the end of September - show that the pressure the Ceann Comhairle and I and other public representatives have indicated exists in the constituency of Kildare South is very real and will not be offset solely by the extensions that are proposed.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's observation on the review of the provision of post-primary schools in the general school planning areas of south Kildare is important. It is well advanced and I will certainly make it available by the end of October. Demographics is the research tool used to prioritise accommodation need. If we go back to 2011, when Ruairí Quinn was in office and developing his plan for the period 2016 to 2021, the measurement was to ask where the population pressures lay. My predecessor, Deputy Bruton, oversaw the capital programme starting in 2016. We are still in that 2016-2021 period but we do have a trajectory now over ten years and an €8.4 billion capital fund, which is double the size of that for the ten years prior to the national development plan timeframe we are envisaging. I will keep the Deputy updated and ensure that the commitment given today, that the review will be made available at the end of October, will be honoured.