Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Hannigan for raising this matter to which I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin. It gives me an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the extent of the work which will be carried out under the school building and modernisation programme in the coming years and, in this context, the position with regard to the Le Chéile Educate Together School on Mornington Road, Drogheda.

At the outset I want to say 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 the Government has shown a consistent 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.

The Government has dramatically increased investment in the school building programme from just over €90 million when we first came into office, to €600 million this coming year. Under the lifetime of the national development plan almost €4.5 billion will be invested in schools. This is an unprecedented level of capital investment which reflects the Government's commitment to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post-primary schools.

Next year alone, some €600 million will be invested in large-scale building projects concentrated mainly on providing school accommodation in rapidly developing areas. This level of funding will facilitate a phased roll-out to the construction of over 350 projects throughout 2008 and early 2009 that will, when complete, provide another 12,000 permanent places. It will facilitate the completion of construction on up to 200 projects to provide over 8,000 additional school places. It will also enable the purchase of sites for the smooth delivery of the school building programme, with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas, and the progression of further projects through the architectural planning and design stages.

The €4.5 billion being made available under the NDP will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State. It will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where needed, as well as continuing to upgrade existing school facilities. This investment will allow the Department to continue the acceleration of the school building programme, which commenced during the lifetime of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested in school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

The Le Chéile Educate Together national school opened with provisional recognition in September 2001. It was granted permanent recognition in September 2002. The school is currently located in prefabricated classrooms on the grounds of Drogheda grammar school. The long-term needs of the school have been assessed and agreed with the school authority. It is proposed to build a 16-classroom school on a site recently purchased from the Drogheda grammar school.

The project has been assessed in accordance with the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects and has been assigned a band 1 rating. Further progress will be considered in the context of the multi-annual school building programme, the focus of which is on developing areas, such as those in the east Meath area. I will convey to the Minister for Education and Science the specific questions raised by Senator Hannigan.