John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senators for raising this matter. I thank Senator O'Donovan for his candid outlining of the facts which he, as a Senator on the Government side, has been raising for quite some time. Unfortunately, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, cannot be here to respond.

Modernising facilities in our existing building stock as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth is a significant challenge and one of the priorities of the Minister for Education and Science. The Government has increased investment in the school building programme to €656 million this year. This is an unprecedented level of capital investment which reflects the commitment of the Government to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post-primary schools.

It underpins a particular emphasis on the delivery of additional school places in rapidly developing areas while continuing to develop the Government's commitment to delivering improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary accommodation. It will also enable the purchase of sites to facilitate the smooth delivery of the schools building programme, again with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas.

Summercove national school has a staffing of a principal, seven mainstream teachers and two learning support teachers. The school's enrolment at 30 September 2008 was 199 pupils, a 15% increase on 2003 figures. The Department will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the most appropriate accommodation is delivered for the school's needs.

As the Senators are aware, the Office of Public Works, OPW, which generally acts on behalf of the Department on site acquisitions for schools, previously identified a suitable site and a letter of offer was issued to the owner in 2006. Unfortunately, however, this offer was rejected. An alternative site has been identified by the OPW. An inspection was carried out on this new proposed site and the report was received in the Department in April 2008. In view of the current budgetary constraints, the Minister for Education and Science is not in a position to provide a definite date for acquiring this site. The further consideration of the proposed site acquisition and the proposed building project for the school will be considered in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme.

I again thank the Senators for affording me the opportunity to outline to the House on behalf of the Minister the position on the need for the location of a site and provision of a new school building for Summercove national school. I wish I could be more definite but, unfortunately, I cannot be.