Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, to outline to the House the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding the proposed building project for the Presentation College in Carlow. A major extension project for the Presentation College is listed in section 8 of the Department's school building programme for 2004. As the Senator has outlined, it is currently at stage 5 in the architectural planning process and has a band 3 rating. The indicative timeframe to tender for this project is post-2004.

As the Department of Education and Science announced when publishing the capital programme, a key strategy for schools building projects going forward will be grounded on the budget day announcement of multi-annual allocations for capital investment in education projects. All projects that are not going to construction as part of the 2004 school building programme will be re-evaluated with a view to including them as part of a multi-annual building programme from 2005 onwards. This re-evaluation will include the project at the Presentation College, Carlow. This strategy will provide better clarity for schools in terms of when they can expect their projects to proceed.

As the first step in the review process, the Department held consultations with the education partners on the prioritisation criteria used for large scale building projects. The purpose of these consultations is to ensure that the criteria have optimum precision and are fully tuned to meeting the priority accommodation needs of the primary and post-primary sectors. The Department expects to be in a position to make a further announcement in this matter later this year.

In the meantime, to alleviate difficulties at the Presentation College, I am pleased to inform the Senator that the Department recently approved grant aid in the amount of almost €58,500 towards the cost of two prefabricated classrooms at the school. The Department is confident that the multi-annual approach to the school building programme and its underpinning principles will provide a mechanism for ensuring that capital investment in school infrastructure will not alone be targeted at those schools most in need but that it will also be made in the most open and transparent way possible.

I thank Senator Browne for raising the matter in this House.