Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of my colleague the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, I thank the Senator for raising this matter. It provides me with an opportunity to outline to the House the position concerning the Department's plans to provide for the infrastructural needs of the three all-Irish schools in Clondalkin, including Gaelscoil na Camoige.

The three schools in question are Gaelscoil na Camoige and Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcain, which are both primary schools, and Coláiste Chillian, which is a post-primary school. Both Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcain agus Coláiste Chillian currently occupy the same VEC-owned site in Clondalkin. Gaelscoil na Camoige occupies rented accommodation in the locale.

The Department is committed to providing permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil na Camoige and, with the assistance of the OPW, has made strenuous attempts in the recent past to acquire a suitable site to enable this, but none was available. The Department then sought the assistance of the County of Dublin VEC to arrive at a solution. An earlier VEC proposal was rejected by the school authority, but a second proposal is now being progressed. This involves the provision of permanent accommodation for the school on the Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcain-Coláiste Chillian site.

Gaelscoil na Camoige has a current enrolment of 225 pupils. Its staffing comprises a principal and eight classroom assistants. The school also has two special education teachers. Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcain currently has 279 pupils and a staffing complement of a principal and 11 classroom assistants. Three special education teachers are also employed.

It is intended that the schools will re-organise to form a junior and a senior school. Each will be provided with permanent accommodation for 16 mainstream classroom assistants to underpin this reorganisation and to cater for the long-term needs of the area. The current enrolment for Coláiste Chillian is 387 students. Its accommodation is being increased to provide for 680 students to cater for the knock-on effect of the expansion of provision at primary level. Once all accommodation is provided, Clondalkin will then have a significant all-Irish campus in its midst.

The Department asked the VEC to carry out a masterplan of the site to ascertain if it could facilitate these plans, and this has been done. The plan is currently being examined in the Department. Assuming acceptance of the masterplan, the next step in the process is for the appointment of a design team to commence architectural planning.

All applications for large-scale capital funding, including the one in question, are assessed against published prioritisation criteria, and are assigned a band rating. Projects are selected for inclusion in a capital programme consistent with that band rating. The band rating attaching to this project is band 1.4, which is a high band rating. While it is not possible at this juncture to say when the Department will be in position to approve this project to proceed further, consideration will be given to this on an ongoing basis in the context of competing priorities from higher band rated projects and the funding available.

I again thank Senator Fitzgerald for raising this matter. Over the lifetime of the current national development plan, the Government is providing funding of €4.5 billion for school buildings. This 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 they are needed and that the upgrading and expansion of existing facilities can continue.