Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The position with St. Mary's Church of Ireland primary school, Royal Oak Road, Bagenalstown, is as Senator Phelan outlined. It is a co-educational school catering for boys and girls from junior infants to sixth class inclusive. The enrolment at 30 September 2007 was 82 pupils. The school has a current staffing of a principal, three teachers and one learning support teacher.

In 2005 the school was offered €575,000 to build a new three classroom school under the small schools scheme. However, as the numbers in the school had increased and a larger school was needed, the school authority withdrew from this scheme. The Department of Education and Science now plans to provide a new four classroom school building for St. Mary's on a greenfield site and the project is being delivered by traditional methods. All applications for large-scale capital funding under this form of delivery are assessed in accordance with published prioritisation criteria and assigned a band rating which reflects the type and urgency of the works needed. The project for St. Mary's attracts a band two rating, indicating that a new school premises is needed.

The project was approved for the commencement of architectural planning under the 2007 school building and modernisation programme. A design team was appointed to enable this. The project has now reached stage 2(a) of the architectural planning process which is the developed sketch scheme. The design team's submission in this regard is with the Department and is currently being examined by the Department's professional and technical staff. When this stage is approved, the next stage is detailed design of the building.

The further progression of all large-scale building projects, including the project for St. Mary's, from the initial design stages through to the construction phase will be considered on an ongoing basis in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building programme. However, in light of current competing demands on the Department's capital budget, it is not possible for the Minister to give an indicative timeframe for the progression of the project for St. Mary's to the next stage of architectural planning at this time.

Large-scale building projects are advanced consistent with the band rating assigned to them under the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects. In this regard, a band two rating is the second highest possible. The Minister shares the school authority's desire to move forward the project for St. Mary's as quickly as possible and he wishes to assure the school that this will happen when the requisite funding is available and consistent with the band rating attaching to it.

I thank Senator Phelan for raising this matter. Over the lifetime of the new national development plan the Government intends to provide €4.5 billion for school buildings such as St. Mary's, which is a huge investment. Currently, however, the school must wait pending the position of the capital programme. The Minister will continue the programme with whatever resources he secures this year and he will keep St. Mary's and other schools in mind.