Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to this House my Department's plans for long term accommodation for Gaelscoil Bharra in Cabra, Dublin 7.

Gaelscoil Bharra is a fully vertical co-educational primary school teaching through the medium of Irish. It has a current enrolment of 221 pupils and a staffing complement of a principal, eight mainstream class teachers and one learning support teacher. It is currently accommodated in temporary classrooms on a site owned by Naomh Fionnbarra GAA club. It receives rental grant aid for three classrooms, while the remainder are in the ownership of the Department. The Department intends providing the school with a new building comprising eight classrooms and ancillary accommodation appropriate to a school of this size. As the school is located in a built up area, the problems associated with acquiring a site for this development cannot be underestimated. However, the Department is examining the possibility of developing the existing site even though it is restricted in nature.

Once the site issue has been resolved, the development of a building project for the school will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme. As the Senator will be aware, all applications for large-scale capital funding, including Gaelscoil Bharra, are assessed by the modernisation and policy unit of my Department. The assessment process determines the extent and type of need based on the demographics of an area, proposed housing developments, condition of buildings, site capacity etc. and leads ultimately to an appropriate accommodation solution. As part of this process, a project is assigned a band rating under the 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. 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 in total, of which band one is the highest and band four the lowest. Band one projects include the provision of buildings where none currently exists but where there is a high demand for pupil places, whereas a band four project makes provision for desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities. Each band rating has a number of subcategories which more specifically describe the type of works needed and the urgency attaching to them.

The project for Gaelscoil Bharra has been assigned a band two rating, which is the second highest band rating possible. This positions the building project for the school to be advanced as soon as the site issue has been resolved and the requisite funding is made available. I assure the Senator that the Department acknowledges the need for a solution to Gaelscoil Bharra's accommodation needs and is committed to working to achieve a satisfactory solution at the earliest possible opportunity.