Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I hope the Minister has good news for me because I do not recall much good news on previous Adjournments.

I ask the Minister of State to inform the House, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, when the proposed building project for Scoil Mhuire, Moycullen, County Galway, will receive sanction from the Department. The board of management applied for a school extension ten years ago, but no action was taken. In subsequent years the original application was followed up, but no progress was made. In March 2007, 1,600 local people signed a petition highlighting the urgent need for a school extension, and in July 2007 the parents' association met the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, to seek his help. In September 2007 the Minister visited the school as promised. On 1 May 2008 the Minister arranged a meeting with the parents' association and the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, so the school could highlight the urgent need for development. On that occasion the former Minister was presented with the petition containing 1,600 names and also 220 letters signed by the parents of children attending Scoil Mhuire, which are now on file.

During the past year other local TDs have asked questions regarding the lack of progress in the Department's building unit. The response has been the standard one, and I do not want to hear this response again this evening:

An Application for capital funding towards the provision of a new school building has been received from the school authority. The long term projected staffing assessment and the further progression of the proposed building project will be considered on an ongoing basis in the context of my Department's multi annual school building and modernisation project.

Currently, Scoil Mhuire has five prefabs, no library, no computer room, cramped facilities and a playground space which is being gradually eroded by the addition of new prefabs. On a recent visit to the school, I saw a learning support teacher working in a converted broom closet. The electrical system is in need of a complete overhaul and cannot cope with the load in winter; the heating system is similarly deficient. The school has doubled in size over the past few years and continues to grow.

Interestingly, at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Science we had a first-of-its-kind presentation on school planning and the school building programme from Frank Wyse of the Department of Education and Science. He told me that Moycullen was a growing area and that there are more children in the zero to four age category than in the junior classes. This indicates that a major increase in pupil numbers is still to come. His conclusion was that various factors indicated that the issue of Moycullen should be addressed. His recommendation, based on CSO data, was that it was important to upgrade and extend. With that in mind, I ask the Minister to give some definite information on when the project will begin and to provide a timeframe. I also ask, if there are any hitches along the way, that these be addressed as a matter of urgency.