Seanad debates
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Schools Building Projects
7:00 pm
Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
I thank the Senator for his kind remarks and for raising this matter, as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to this House the Department's capital programme of works for 2008 and the current position with regard to proposed building projects for Rahan national school, Mallow, and Glenville national school in Glenville, County Cork.
All applications for capital funding are assessed in the modernisation and policy unit of the Department. The assessment process determines the extent and type of need presenting based on the demographics of an area, proposed housing developments, condition of buildings, site capacity etc. leading ultimately to an appropriate accommodation solution. As part of this process, a project is assigned a band rating under published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects. These criteria were devised following consultation with the education partners.
Projects are selected for inclusion in the school building and modernisation programme on the basis of priority of need and this is reflected in the band rating assigned to a project. In other words, a proposed building project moves through the system commensurate with the band rating assigned to it. There are four band ratings overall, with band one being the highest and band four the lowest.
Band one projects, for example, include the provision of buildings where none currently exists but there is a high demand for pupil places, while a band four project makes provision for desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities. As the Senator probably will be aware, almost €600 million in public funding is being provided for school buildings this year. This will enable the completion of work on 67 large-scale primary school projects that will deliver 7,000 additional permanent school places in new schools and 2,300 additional permanent school places in existing schools. Construction work on 150 devolved projects under the permanent accommodation scheme will provide 8,000 additional places in existing primary schools.
In the post-primary sector, construction work will be completed on 19 large-scale projects which will provide 2,400 permanent school places in four new schools and additional accommodation and refurbishment works in 15 schools that will benefit more than 7,000 pupil attendees. The purchase of sites will facilitate the smooth delivery of the school building programme, particularly in rapidly developing areas, and the progression of new projects through architectural planning and design stages.
On 1 February last, there was an announcement of the first tranche of projects that will proceed to construction this year. Construction is also due to start in 2008 on the first bundle of PPP schools, while further ones will be offered to the market next year with a view to building work commencing in later years. This is an enormous programme of work by any standards and, while there will continue to be a focus during the year on providing extra places in developing areas, the Department will also deliver improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary school accommodation throughout the country. The emphasis, however, will be on new schools and extensions to provide additionality in rapidly developing areas.
To address the projects of particular concern to the Senator, Glenville national school is a co-educational facility with a current enrolment of 129 pupils. The school has a current staffing of a principal, four mainstream assistants and one learning support and one resource. The school authority submitted an application to the Department of Education and Science for large-scale capital funding for an extension project. The long-term staffing figure, on which accommodation needs will be based, has been determined. In this regard, it has been agreed that accommodation should be provided to cater for a long-term projected staffing of a principal, eight mainstream assistants and appropriate ancillary accommodation.
Rahan national school is also a co-educational primary school with a September 2007 enrolment of 91 pupils. The school has a current staffing of principal, three mainstream class teachers and one permanent learning support and resource teacher. The school has applied for a new school building. The long-term staffing has been agreed at a principal, eight mainstream assistants and appropriate ancillary accommodation.
I am pleased to inform the Senator an application by Rahan national school to replace temporary accommodation this year has been approved by the Department. Both of these projects attract a band two rating. The next step for them is the appointment of a design team. The Minister for Education and Science is currently examining issues relating to funding and other aspects of the multi-annual school building programme. At this stage it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe for the progression of these projects to the next stage.
I thank the Senator for raising this matter and point out that over the lifetime of the 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 and will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where they are needed. This investment will allow the continuation 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, as it did, more than 7,800 projects.
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