Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Ba mhaith liom a bhua sa toghchán a thréaslú leis an gCathaoirleach agus leis na Seanadoirí a labhair anseo inniu. I note that of the 14 Senators who spoke on this topic, 12 are newly elected which augurs well for future debates on education. I thank them all for their interest and welcome them to the Houses of the Oireachtas. I thank them also for affording me the opportunity to outline the priority that the Department of Education and Science continues to give to school planning and integration.

In proposing the motion Senator Alex White asked why I did not accept the initial principle about access in respect of religion and race. I rejected it because it was not inclusive enough. A major problem arises when schools exclude children on the basis of social background or special educational needs. We all believe schools should be inclusive, and for the most part they are.

Had Senators been here for the past five or ten years they would have heard that the focus was all on substandard schools and on investing in existing schools. They also would be familiar with the level of activity in the school modernisation and building programme which has reached an all-time high. Since 2000 the Department has spent €3 billion on 9,000 projects, ranging from new windows or roofs to the large wonderful new schools which cost up to €14 million, or €18 million for the complete fit-out of the new school I opened last Friday in Malahide.

It is a challenge to balance the need to deal with under-investment in schools for many decades while also providing new ones. We have made significant progress, however, by unprecedented investment and innovations in the building programme. New schemes have been central to the fast delivery of programmes in the schools and to ensuring we meet the under-provision from the past and deal with substandard schools. This year 1,100 schools were approved under the summer works scheme. Many have waited years for small projects but the success of that work is evident throughout the country.

We have also expanded provision in developing areas. Investment has increased and the way in which we design and deliver schools ensures we build the extra accommodation as quickly as possible. Responsibility for small projects has been devolved to school level to reduce red tape and to allow projects to move quickly. Standard designs have been developed for the eight, 12 and 16 classroom schools to facilitate speedy delivery of projects and to save on design fees. This hastens the planning process because the difficulties have been already ironed out. The design is top class and so energy efficient it has been recommended for an energy award.

Where possible, we build permanent accommodation instead of prefabs but where extra accommodation is needed at short notice it is necessary to erect prefabs. The amount spent on these is kept to a minimum, and is a small part of our annual budget. We have also significantly improved the manner in which the Department plans for the provision of extra school places in developing areas. People are designated within the planning and building unit of the Department to deal with local authorities, specifically in developing areas. We have also published our own area development plans, separate from those of the local councils, on which we invite public consultation. These set out the provision that will be needed in the next ten years.

This year we have catered for an additional 14,000 to 15,000 children in primary schools. It was a remarkable achievement to get that down to the last 50, bearing in mind population movement into and within the country which occurs frequently. Approximately 50,000 children did the leaving certificate this year and more than 64,000 children came into the education system. One of the biggest challenges we face is that up to 100,000 extra children will come into our schools in the next few years. As a result the Department has developed close links with local authorities to improve planning for schools. In the past far too many houses were built without the necessary facilities being set aside for them. The local authorities are best placed to know what planning permissions and rezonings they give and how many houses they build. In recent years there has been strong two-way communication with the local authorities which are obliged to consult the Department about the need for school places. Following that sites are reserved before planning or development takes place.

The Department signed an interesting agreement with Fingal County Council which has undertaken to acquire the sites for the Department. The Department benefits both from having the sites made available by the people who know the plans for the area and because the council makes available at a reduced cost land it owns and will negotiate the purchase of land from developers. In return the Department invests part of the savings in enhanced sports and community facilities which the council will also fund. This is up and running in a school in Diswellstown. The site was provided at a good price and the school was built with large sports and meeting room facilities in order that the community can use it. This is a positive development which could roll out throughout the country.

It can be difficult to acquire appropriate sites which, like planning, creates major problems for the Department. Reference was made to an area where, because of the demand for classroom spaces and the lack of planning, some children went to school in the mornings while others attended in the afternoons and that this lasted for a fortnight. If the local community, not the parents involved in the school, had not objected to the provision of the school it would have been on site. That difficulty arises particularly when trying to provide a site in an already built-up area.

Once we have the sites we can build the schools in record time because of our design and build process using some of our generic designs, for example, the Archbishop Ryan school in Dublin West or the new school built in Laytown this year. The major stumbling block has been the acquisition of the sites. In some areas the site was not reserved, in others where it was reserved it was difficult to get it at a reasonable price within the timeframe. By imposing planning conditions that require schools to be built before the houses, the local authorities can ensure the developers are willing to provide school sites without excessive cost to the Department. I suggest the ability to highlight the availability of the school as a community facility next door would also improve the likelihood of developers being able to sell their houses.

While Members have noted the success of the Adamstown strategic development zone, this model can also work in smaller areas and could be used both to provide a new school or site and as a planning condition to provide one or two additional classrooms in small rural areas that are also experiencing significant development. The new programme for Government contains a commitment to ensure no rezoning of land for residential development may take place without a prior commitment of an appropriate proportion of land for the schools. I have already held preliminary discussions with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on how to make rapid progress in this regard.

In addition to improving its links with local authorities, my Department has also developed its own planning capacity for schools. In 2004 it adopted an area-based approach to school planning that uses a public consultation process involving all interested parties. As I noted, a blueprint for the schools' development over a ten-year timeframe is set out and members of the public are involved actively in consultation regarding the required schools, places and numbers in their own localities for the next ten years.

Five-year plans have been already produced, some of which are for the developing areas of north County Dublin, south County Louth, east County Meath, the N4-M4 corridor running from Leixlip to Kilbeggan. In addition, the Department has conducted detailed analysis of the existing and projected enrolments in a large number of developing areas to ensure good planning for additional accommodation, where required. However, one is still unable to rely completely on the census figures as some groups of people did not fill in the census returns for various reasons. Some were immigrants who may have been worried about their own status. In addition, irrespective of the census returns, the movement of people into areas, including very young children and entire families, creates a demand both for junior infant classes and for places in fourth, fifth and sixth classes, which may be already full in existing schools. When this scenario has taken place, schools have been highly accommodating. A number of important initiatives have been taken in respect of forward planning within the Department and its links to local authorities.

Nevertheless, the demand is great. An additional 100,000 school places will be required during the lifetime of the national development plan in which a provision of €4.5 billion has been set aside to meet this need. In its first year, construction work will deliver more than 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for 17,500 pupils, mainly in developing areas. This should provide Members with a sense of the scope involved.

The issue of Balbriggan was raised. I accept it is not ideal to set up a school at such short notice. However, the Department was highly conscious that Balbriggan was a developing area and had been working closely with the town's existing schools, which were provided with additional teachers and accommodation. Moreover, it has been already noted that new schools were opened in Balbriggan in 2005 and 2006 and that Educate Together had indicated its intention to open a new school there next year. Consequently, while the Department worked with Fingal County Council to acquire land for new school buildings in Balbriggan, it also kept the enrolments under review, particularly this year. It became apparent that given the rates of growth and movement of people, further schools and accommodation would be required despite the provision of additional accommodation for the established schools. This was made available in Sunshine House.

The Department invited Educate Together to bring forward the school it had hoped to open next year and I thank the organisation for working with the Department to provide the school within such a short timeframe. In addition, I thank the school principal who had an extremely difficult first week, given the media focus on her school and pupils. She is deeply committed to ensuring her pupils receive a top quality education. While it could be stated that one would not wish to provide a school for children of a single ethnic background, it was necessary to provide a new school there. Moreover, Bracken Educate Together national school reflects the nature of the families that have moved into the area recently. Those who are familiar with the town are aware its new growth has come from people of various ethnic backgrounds. This issue is not the result of unwillingness on the part of the town's existing schools to accept children of any particular ethnicity or religion. Some existing schools have large numbers of newcomer children. It has been already noted that many people in Balbriggan were very upset by the implication in some sectors that there was a form of racism at play in this regard. Obviously the Department will continue to work with people there, as well as in other developing areas.

I refer to supports for newcomers. Members have discussed the issue of integration, which is of equal importance. The establishment of the office for integration and the appointment of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science with responsibility for integration policy, Deputy Conor Lenihan, will ensure the Government has a co-ordinated and cohesive approach to dealing with the integration of newcomers into Ireland. In the first instance, the Department's priority for children in schools is they should be able to speak and understand the language. Hence, priority was given to the teaching of English. Without referring to mainstream teachers, special needs teachers or resource teachers, there are now 1,450 teachers whose sole job is to teach English to newcomers to our country. This constitutes an enormous increase and a further 305 teachers will be employed by 2009. Some schools have as many as six teachers teaching English to such children to support them in their new communities.

The Department has also ensured that information is available to parents in a number of languages. One can obtain information on the education system on the Department's website in Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish and German, as well as Irish and English. Similarly, information from both the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and the National Educational Welfare Board has been provided in a number of languages. I have also ensured that the Department is pursuing an active policy of integration in schools to prevent racism through practical guidelines on integration that have been given or made available to all primary and secondary schools.

I will touch briefly on the issue of school patronage. As was noted earlier, the present shape of the school system reflects the historic reality that religious authorities established the majority of schools. In the main, the Catholic Church provided an education for children in all districts, regardless of whether one was on an island or the mainland, in a large city or a small rural area. Moreover, traditionally such schools have welcomed and continue to welcome children from all backgrounds and religions. From their own experience, Members will be aware that Catholic schools have enrolled a large number of children of different faiths. I have visited such schools personally and regardless of whether the location is in Castleisland or west County Dublin, one can see the diversity that is present and that has been welcomed. I will continue to support this practice by ensuring there are enough school places available.

The majority of new schools that have opened in recent years have been multi-denominational, which reflects the new Ireland and the new demand that has arisen. In this year alone, the Department of Education and Science has received 38 notices of intention to open new schools next year, only seven of which concern schools of a Catholic ethos. This demonstrates the present demand. All such schools are being assessed through a process that involves public consultation. Consequently, the public is involved in this process, be it for planning in one's own locality or in respect of the individual school being established.

Having recognised the need, the Department is developing a new model of primary school patronage, namely, the community national school. It will cater for a diversity of religious faiths that are represented, in particular, in growing urban areas. This new model will be in place next year under the County Dublin Vocational Education Committee in west County Dublin. However, it is important to recognise this model will not constitute a substitute or replacement for the existing patrons and will run alongside them. I look forward to developing this model and to having inclusive schools that will focus on the academic, the cultural and the spiritual, because the overall development of a child is hugely important in their education.

Members will be aware the Catholic bishops' commission on education has signalled in a policy statement issued last week that in some areas, in which there has been a decline in the demand for Catholic education, some of its existing schools may no longer be viable as Catholic schools. It has also stated that in certain circumstances, Catholic schools may be transferred to other patrons. I welcome that the bishops' statement makes clear that parents and teachers will be consulted before decisions are taken in respect of any school.

I will explore with the bishops the scope, range and pace of disengagement they envisage in order that any changes are well planned and managed in a manner that accommodates the interests of parents, teachers, children and local communities and contributes to an inclusive education system. As Senators have heard me outline, there are a number of methods by which people can get involved in consultation and debate at all stages of planning in our school system. The matter of community national schools is being discussed with all of the education partners. Among all Departments, there is a formal process of consultation with all education partners, involving management, teachers' unions, parents and students. It is very inclusive. Between 2002 and 2004 my predecessor, Deputy Noel Dempsey, held a two-year public consultation process called YES, Your Education System.