Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Bannon for raising this matter on the Adjournment as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to this House the proposals of the Department of Education and Science with regard to the proposed building project at Forgney national school, Moyvore, Mullingar, County Westmeath. At the outset I wish to point out that 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. Nonetheless, since taking office, this 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 enable the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum.

In this regard this Government has invested in the largest school building programme in the history of the State. Between 1998 and the end of 2004, almost €2 billion was invested in school buildings and approximately 7,500 large and small projects were completed in schools including 130 brand new schools and 510 large scale refurbishments and extensions. Indeed, funding for school building and renovation projects has increased five-fold since 1997. In 2006, £491 million will be spent on school building projects, compared to just £92 million in 1997. The 2006 allocation is an increase of over 9% in real terms on the 2005 allocation.

As the Senator will be aware, at the end of last year the Department of Education and Science outlined its spending plans for primary and post primary schools for 2006. With £491 million to be spent on school buildings, there will be over 1300 projects active in schools all over the country. This significant investment will allow the Department to continue to progress our major programme of school building and modernisation which includes improving equipment needed for new technologies and ICT.

Forgney national school has a staffing of a principal, one mainstream teacher and a shared resource teacher. The school's enrolment at 30 September 2005 was 19 pupils. An application for capital funding from the school has been assessed by officials in the school planning section of the Department. It has been assigned a band 2 rating under the published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects. The Department's inspectorate has assessed the school's long term projected staffing as principal plus one mainstream assistant and has ruled out the possibility of amalgamation with neighbouring schools.

The next step is for a technical inspection to be carried out on the school building. This will be arranged as soon as it is feasible. Thereafter, a long term accommodation brief for the school will be drawn up and progress on the project will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme from 2006 onwards. I again thank the Senator for affording me the opportunity to outline to the House the current position in this case and the process which the school can expect to ensue as its project moves forward to delivery.