Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator O'Meara for affording me an opportunity to outline to the House the Department of Education and Science's position on the proposed building project at the vocational school in Nenagh, County Tipperary. The modernisation of 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 and the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth. Since the Government came into office, it has shown a sincere determination to improve the condition of our school buildings and to ensure that appropriate facilities are in place to enable the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum. Evidence of this commitment is the fact that approximately 1,300 building and modernisation projects are active in our primary and post-primary schools this year. Over €490 million is being spent on primary and post-primary projects throughout the country.

Nenagh vocational school was listed, among 124 schools that were announced in April 2005, as a project to be furthered through the architectural planning process. The brief for this project is the refurbishment of current accommodation and an extension to provide appropriate accommodation for a long-term projected enrolment of 400 pupils. Officials of the Department of Education and Science visited the school in November 2005 and consequently revised the schedules of accommodation which were issued to the VEC authorities in a letter dated 21 November 2005. In the letter, the Department instructed the VEC authorities to request their design team to amend the stage 1 application, site suitability and design options, to reflect the impact of the revised schedules on the design options as presented in the original stage 1 application dated January 2001.

The Department of Education and Science has subsequently received the requested information from the VEC authorities and on completion of a review of the submission, officials of the Department will be in contact with the school authorities with regard to furthering their project. Progression of projects to tender and construction will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme, 2006-10.