Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I wish to raise the difficulties at St. Eunan's secondary school in Letterkenny, an all-boys secondary school that used to be a boarding school. In particular, I am concerned that the school does not have enough space to accommodate its current enrolment of 800 students. The school's authorities are experiencing major problems in facilitating its teachers and students within the existing school building. I would like the Minister for Education and Science to outline the timeframe within which the school's extension will be completed and to clarify the stage to which the project has progressed. The proactive and hard-working teachers and parents who are involved in the school's new board of management structure want to know where the proposed school extension stands. A meeting was arranged with the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, when such details were sought last February. The board of management was told to collate the school's enrolment figures and to give that information to the Minister. Although the board was very good and did its homework as it had been told to do, it recently found itself in limbo when it was told that the project had been returned to stage one.

I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, will be the bearer of good news this evening. I hope he will tell me that the project is no longer at stage one, but has been progressed to a further stage. The Minister of State is normally the bearer of good news and I hope tonight will not be any different in that regard. I seek clarification about the current status of the proposed school extension. It is not good enough, from a health and safety perspective, that the school is having such difficulties in seeking to accommodate 800 students. I ask the Minister of State to clarify the progress that has been made in respect of the extension of the school building at St. Eunan's college. I would like him to make clear the stage to which the project has progressed. When will it progress to the next stage?