Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann, noting:

the inordinate amount of parliamentary time consumed by a continuous stream of adjournment debates on school building projects and the consequent repetitive, uninformative and unhelpful responses of Ministers;

concerned at:

the lack of transparency of the school building project processes;

the lack of efficiency of the school building project management, and

the apparent ad hoc nature of decision making in relation to same;

calls on the Government:

to establish an open, fair and transparent procedure;

to publish the precise criteria and their weightings under which schools qualify for moneys or grant aid;

to publish the precise criteria and weightings under which the prioritisation of the schools building list is determined; and

to introduce a tracking procedure whereby a school's building project can be tracked through the stages of the process and through its place on priority lists;

and proposes:

that the Minister establish an internal and external quality audit of the school building procedures and publish the results;

that a value for money audit be carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General;

that a stock inventory of Irish primary schools infrastructure, including the number of temporary and permanent buildings be carried out by the OPW;

that the Public Accounts Committee scrutinise the equality and fairness of the procedures for awarding school building grants; and

that future school building projects be advanced through the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006.

I welcome the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, to the House. I thank her for coming here to listen to my words on this issue. The proposal I am making involves something slightly different from what we usually do during the school building process. I am calling on the Government to put in place a project management procedure that I can understand. There is a need to publish the precise criteria and weightings under which schools qualify for building projects. The Government should introduce a tracking procedure whereby projects can be tracked through the various stages of the process. I ask the Minister to establish an internal and external quality assurance audit of school building procedures and to publish the results. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General should be asked to carry out a value for money audit. A stock inventory of primary schools infrastructure, including the number of temporary and permanent buildings, should be carried out by the Office of Public Works or some other body. The Committee of Public Accounts should be required to scrutinise the equality and fairness of the procedures for awarding school building grants. Future schools building projects should be advanced — fast-tracked, where necessary — through the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006.

The Government amendment to my motion, which is interesting in its own way, has nothing to do with the motion. I do not have any particular problem with the content of the amendment. I would be happy to accept it as an addendum to my motion, or to add my motion as an addendum to the amendment, in line with the Minister's wishes. I emphasise that I am open minded and fair about this matter. I do not mind acknowledging the good work the Minister has done, but that is not the issue being debated here. I am not criticising the Government in my motion. If the Minister is happy to accept my motion as an amendment to her amendment, or to do things the other way around, I will be happy to act in such a manner. I am sure the Minister is willing to consider the various possibilities.

I do not intend to get involved in a detailed discussion of the individual projects which could be used to illustrate the kind of stuff with which I am dealing. While it is not my business to do so, I will mention some schools to put my argument in context. The Minister might know Blennerville national school in Tralee, County Kerry, as the school beside the windmill. I first raised the school's needs with the then Department of Education in 1996, long before the Minister was assigned to that Department. At that stage, the school was awaiting the appointment of a design team. That is still the case. I raised the problems at Drumclough national school, which is outside Listowel, County Kerry, on the Adjournment some time ago. It has been waiting since 2006 for a design team to be appointed. Rahan national school, which is near Mallow, County Cork, was in the news recently and is encountering difficulties all the time.

The gravity of this issue was particularly well illustrated on today's "Morning Ireland", when a principal teacher was interviewed about a problem that is developing with a school building project in north Cork. When it was put to him that the Department of Education and Science has said it will move ahead as soon as a design team is appointed, which sounds very logical, cogent and acceptable in normal terms, the principal read from a letter he received from the Minister in October 2006 stating that the next step, which was about to be taken at that stage, was the appointment of a design team. That is the difficulty. It is not a question of where we are going — it is a question of how we get there. What do the various steps mean? How can a school get from one step to another? I have studied the various stages which are outlined on the website of the Department of Education and Science. There is nothing wrong with stages. The difficulty is how one gets from one stage to another. I raise this issue tonight because I am concerned, as a public representative, that ordinary people are unable to get information about these matters from the Department.