Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the Seanad the position on the proposed building projects for both Nenagh and Borrisokane vocational schools.

All applications for capital funding are assessed in the modernisation and policy unit of the Department of Education and Science. 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 schools 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 and according as it is ready to proceed.

There are four band ratings overall, of which band one is 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. Band two projects largely address mainstream extension and refurbishment needs, band three projects address ancillary needs and band four projects make provision of 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 at a school and the urgency attaching to them.

As for health and safety issues, individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, under safety, health and welfare at work legislation for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care. It is the responsibility of individual school management authorities to have in place a safety statement in their schools. The statement should identify potential hazards, assess the risks to health and safety and put in place appropriate provision to safeguard the safety and health of employees and pupils. The safety statement should be reviewed on a regular basis. In practical terms, individual school authorities are best placed to assess the detail of their own health and safety requirements.

The Department of Education and Science is currently working with the Health and Safety Authority and State Claims Agency to develop a health and safety management system to support post-primary schools to meet their obligations under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. This work forms part of a wider initiative to reduce the administrative burden on post-primary schools by supporting them in preparing policies to meet a range of legislative and regulatory requirements. A total of eight such policies have been published to date and these are available on the Department's website, www.education.ie. The Department of Education and Science takes great care to ensure that all health and safety requirements are incorporated into new school buildings and extensions. The Department ensures that its technical guidance documentation takes cognisance of all health and safety legislation to inform design teams of their obligations in this area when designing building projects.

Provision is built into the school building and modernisation programme to enable schools address urgent health and safety issues. This includes financial provision under the summer works scheme under which both of the schools in question have benefited. The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, will provide the details of this at another time. The Department of Education and Science also sets aside contingency funding each year to address urgent unforeseen issues with school buildings.

Borrisokane Community College is a co-educational provider. It has a current enrolment of 474 pupils and this number has increased slightly in recent years. Following an application for capital funding from the VEC for an extension and refurbishment project at this school, a building project was approved to commence architectural planning. A stage 3 submission, which is the developed sketch scheme, has been approved in this regard. While it has not been possible to progress the project further due to higher competing demands, the school has received funding amounting to €255,000 under the summer works scheme between the years 2005 and 2007 for an electrical upgrade and partial roof replacement. This has improved conditions at the school.

Nenagh Vocational School also is a co-educational school with an enrolment of 360 students, which is broken down into 257 mainstream pupils and 103 post-leaving certificate, PLC, and vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS, students. The school has experienced a 9% decrease in its mainstream enrolments in recent years, while its PLC and VTOS enrolments are stable. An extension and refurbishment project for this school also is at stage 3 of the architectural planning process and the stage 3 submission has been approved. Again, while the funding has not been available to allow the project to proceed further, this school also received €384,000 in funding under the summer works scheme in 2006 and 2007 for an electrical upgrade and for universal access works.

The extension and refurbishment projects for both Nenagh and Borrisokane have been assigned a band 2.4 rating under the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects, which I already mentioned. This reflects the fact that although there is a deficit of mainstream accommodation in the schools, it does not represent a substantial or significant portion of the schools' overall accommodation needs. It also reflects the fact that the schools are in need of refurbishment. Part of the refurbishment aspect of the projects has been addressed by the allocation of summer works scheme funding.

Due to competing demands on the capital budget from higher band rated projects, it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe for the further progression of the remainder of these projects at present. However, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, wishes to assure the Senator that he is committed to delivering the projects as soon as the necessary funding becomes available.

I again thank the Senator for raising this matter.