Michael Smith (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Tuffy for providing me with the opportunity of outlining to the House the extensive interventions taken by the Department of Education and Science to address the school accommodation needs of the Lucan area.

I wish to clarify that the Department did not state in reply to a freedom of information request that there is a shortfall of 300 pupil places in the Lucan area. The Department has no evidence to suggest any such shortfall and is confident that the range of measure undertaken by it in recent years and those planned for the future will be sufficient to meet the needs of the area in the future.

As the Minister for Education and Science has stated publicly on a number of occasions, he is fully conscious that Lucan is the fastest growing area in the country and that, as a result, there has been a marked increase in the demand for school places, particularly at primary level. To meet this demand, his Department has taken major steps to increase capacity in the area by a combination of building new schools and increasing capacity at existing providers.

In the past five years primary and post-primary schools have shared in a massive and sustained capital investment programme of almost €19 million, which has significantly boosted capacity and substantially improved facilities. A total of €7 million has been invested in post-primary building projects and €12 million has been invested in primary school projects.

The position at primary level is that building projects were completed in 2003 at Scoil Áine junior school and St. Thomas's senior school to increase the capacity of each to 16 classrooms. Construction of the new Lucan Educate Together national school was also completed in 2003 and the capacity of this school is 16 mainstream classrooms, together with an autistic unit.

To further increase primary provision in the area, the Department requested that Archbishop Ryan national school reorganise to form a junior school and a senior school. The school authority and patron have agreed to this course of action to commence operation in September 2004. Temporary accommodation will be provided to facilitate this reorganization, which will enable the school to increase capacity considerably. In addition, the building unit of the Department approved the tender last year for the installation of two prefabricated classrooms at the Archbishop Ryan school to cater for immediate accommodation needs. A building project for the provision of permanent accommodation for the new Archbishop Ryan senior national school is also at an advanced stage in the architectural planning process and it is envisaged that the project will go to construction this year.

A further new school, Griffeen Valley Educate Together national school, was established in the Lucan area in September 2002. The school is currently located in the temporary accommodation recently vacated by Lucan Educate Together national school.

As the Senator is aware, the local authority, at the request of the Department of Education and Science, reserved a site in the Griffeen Valley area for primary school purposes. The Department has purchased this site and construction work has commenced on permanent accommodation comprising 16 classrooms for the Griffeen Valley Educate Together school. The target date to have the new building in operation is September 2004.

At post-primary level, there are four post-primary providers operating in the Lucan area, with a current enrolment of 2,420 students. With the near completion of extension projects in both St. Joseph's College and Coláiste Pádraig, and a project to provide a new building for Coláiste Cois Life, a developing all-Irish college which will proceed to tender and construction later this year, there will be capacity for 3,027 pupils in the Lucan area.

I wish to point out that there are also four schools in the adjoining areas to Lucan, namely Palmerstown, Leixlip and Clondalkin, which have experienced a significant decline in pupil numbers over the past five years. The accommodation freed up by this decline provides an option in terms of facilitating any further growth in the Lucan area.

The Minister is satisfied that the combination of all the measures outlined will satisfy the demand for primary and post-primary school places in the Lucan area into the future. However, the Department will continue to monitor developments to ensure that any emerging additional demands are addressed as expeditiously as possible.