Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Morrissey for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House both the extensive actions already taken by the Department of Education and Science and those planned for the future, to tackle the accommodation needs of St. Brigid's national school, Castleknock.

Modernising facilities in our 3,200 primary and 750 post-primary schools is not an easy task, given the legacy of decades of under-investment in this area, as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth, as Senator Morrissey has outlined. Nonetheless, since taking office, the Government has shown a sincere determination to improve the condition of our school buildings and to ensure that the appropriate facilities are in place to facilitate the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum.

We have progressively increased funding for the school modernisation programme in recent years to achieve our goal with an aggregate total of almost €2 billion allocated for this purpose since 1998, the largest investment programme in the history of the State. Since the beginning of the year, the Minister for Education and Science has made a number of announcements relating to the schools building and modernisation programme. This year alone, €270 million will be allocated to primary schools and €223 million to post-primary schools for building works. This represent an increase of 14% on the 2004 allocation.

The programmes supported will include some 141 major building projects already on site and a further 28 due to commence in the coming weeks; some 122 major school building projects countrywide, which will prepare tenders and move to construction during 2005; some 192 primary schools which have been invited to take part in the small and rural schools initiative and the devolved scheme for providing additional accommodation; up to 120 schools which have been given approval to rent temporary premises, pending delivery of a permanent solution to their long-term accommodation needs; some 43 schools which have been authorised to start architectural planning of their major projects and 124 which have been approved to progress through the architectural planning process; and 590 schools which were given approval to complete essential small scale projects under the summer works scheme.

I am pleased to confirm that St. Brigid's national school, Castleknock, was successful in securing funding of over €90,000 towards the partial replacement of windows under the summer works scheme 2005. The school also received a grant of €225,000 in 2004 towards the replacement of windows. Last year, the Department of Education and Science received an application from the school authorities of St. Brigid's for the provision of a general purpose room, resource rooms, a multipurpose room and storage space. This application was assessed in accordance with the published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects, which were revised following consultation with the education partners. The project will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme 2005-09.

I again thank Senator Morrissey for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the method used by the Department in determining in an open and transparent way how projects are included for funding in the school building programme. I assure the Seanad that this school and all others will be treated in a fair and equitable manner.