Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank her for coming again to participate in this debate on education. This is her second time in the House in the past two weeks and it is appreciated.

Education is an important issue. As we are all aware, there have been many crises in the educational system of late due to the rapid population growth and the influx of people of different ethnic and national backgrounds, which puts a certain pressure on the traditional model of educational provision in this country.

There are a few points I want to raise with the Minister, some of which I raised on the previous occasion she was in the House but which are important and need to be emphasised. The greatest challenge for this country is the provision of new schools and the upgrading of existing schools, and that comes down to the issue of adequate funding. In the programme for Government we have made a commitment to invest €4.5 billion in providing new schools and improving existing ones. That is a clear commitment for which the Green Party pushed strongly. We saw the need to respond to the demand for educational facilities in this country. However, I acknowledge that we are facing into difficult budgetary conditions and the Green Party must lend its support to the Minister in negotiating for and advocating the provision of that level of funding.

Education is a priority area. One of the most basic commitments in the Constitution is to provide for free primary school education for all our children and it is unacceptable that we cannot do so because of a lack of facilities for which there is a clear need. The Green Party will support the Minister in ensuring the education sector gets the type of funding committed to it in the programme for Government, within the difficult budgetary situation we face.

My second point concerns the necessity for proper planning and information exchange between local authorities and the Department of Education and Science on the provision of new schools, both in terms of identifying and securing sites and the building programmes. We have made a commitment in the programme for Government to establish a developing areas unit in the Department of Education and Science to liaise with the local authorities to identify where new schools are needed and to ensure they are delivered in the fastest possible timeframe. I would encourage the Minister to ensure that unit is up and running as effectively as possible. The exchange of information is a two-way flow. I am aware in the development plan guidelines for local authorities there is also a requirement that local authorities would liaise with the Department and provide it with information, which the Department cannot access otherwise, of areas of population growth within their jurisdictions. This two-way flow of information will ensure we are aware, in advance, of the likely areas of population growth and we will be able to plan both the identification and securing of sites and the building of schools so that they are delivered along with the housing and other development that occurs in these areas.

Another issue touched on in the programme for Government, and one on which I would be interested in hearing the Minister's view, is the commitment made to improve the arrangements for acquiring sites for schools. On the previous occasion she was in the House, the Minister acknowledged that this is a serious problem because the price of land, usually in areas of rapid population growth, is at a premium and it is difficult for the Department of Education and Science to afford the prices and often must enter into negotiations with local landowners and so on. The issue of cost is a major consideration for the Department in terms of the provision of schools.

I suggest to the Minister that the issue of empowering the State to compulsorily purchase land for the provision of school sites would be considered by the Government because while in some developments it may be possible to negotiate with developers and have the developer provide a site as part of an overall integrated development plan, in some cases it is not. There would be strong public support for the State to intervene in such situations. The all-party Oireachtas committee that examined the implementation of the Kenny report was of the view that no changes to the Constitution were necessary to implement the provisions of that report. The Kenny report sought to empower local authorities to be able to purchase land at agricultural prices plus 25%. I would argue that the same provision could be used by the State to compulsorily purchase land for the provision of essential educational facilities that cannot otherwise be provided.

Another issue I want to raise with the Minister — we mentioned it on a previous occasion — is the need for the designation of more strategic development zones. We are all aware of the success of the Adamstown model. It was one of the three strategic development zones identified in the Planning and Development Act 2000, the others being in Fingal — Hansfield — and in Navan. There are areas of intensive population growth throughout the country and perhaps that should be re-examined. The success in the Adamstown model of building a school within a ten month period and ahead of schedule is something that should be available to other areas of similar population growth, albeit perhaps not as large as the Adamstown site which was more than 200 hectares. These strategic development zones should become part and parcel of the way we do our planning.

Another issue is the ability of local authorities to oblige developers to fund the provision of new schools. Under the local authorities development contribution scheme, there are many works in respect of which local authorities can implement development levies on developers. They are usually carried out by local authorities — parks, playgrounds and so on. Unfortunately, as matters stand, section 48 of the Planning and Development Act does not allow the local authority to oblige developers to fund educational facilities. I ask the Minster to examine the possibility of having that section of the Act amended to ensure local authorities are in a position to require developers, as part of development contribution schemes, to make contributions towards the development of new educational facilities as part of any developments they carry out.

In the programme for Government we have made a commitment to ensure new schools are designed for multi-purpose use. That should be encouraged because there are many possibilities for school buildings to be used outside of school hours for community groups and other purposes. Will the Minister indicate if that has been factored in to the design of new schools?

Senator O'Toole referred to the policy of tumoideachais about which there is a great deal of concern. I am aware the Minister is keen to see some English language education introduced at an early stage in the Gaelscoileanna but the Gaelscoil community has requested that this decision be at least deferred until adequate research has been carried out. The international research indicates that young children are very versatile and have an amazing capacity for language acquisition and that the exposure to two or three languages simultaneously does not take from their abilities to acquire any one of those languages. It is a very well thought out policy and one that is considered vital to proper immersion in the Irish language in terms of the service the Gaelscoileanna provide. Will the Minister defer that decision at least until sound research into the policy change has been carried out?