Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I am replying on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the Seanad the position with regard to an application to the Department of Education and Science from Baylin national school, Athlone, for large-scale capital funding.

In April 2008, Baylin national school applied to the Department for an extension and refurbishment project comprising two classrooms, a general purpose room, a multipurpose room and storage facilities. The school has a current staffing level of a principal and four mainstream teachers. It also has the services of a resource teacher. Its accommodation consists of four mainstream permanent classrooms, one prefabricated mainstream classroom and some ancillary accommodation. The school's enrolment at 30 September 2008 was 127 pupils. While enrolments at the school have increased modestly over the past five years, the school is not experiencing the rapid increase in enrolments that have occurred in other schools in the county.

All applications for capital funding are assessed in the planning and building unit of the Department against published prioritisation criteria, which were formulated following consultation with the education partners. The assessment process determines the extent and type of accommodation needed based on population growth, demographic trends, current and projected enrolments, recent and planned housing developments and the capacity of existing schools to meet the demand for pupil places. As part of this process, a project is assigned a band rating under the prioritisation criteria already mentioned. There are four band ratings in all, with band 1 being the highest and band 4 being the lowest.

A band 1 project, for example, refers to the provision of schools where none currently exists but where there is a high demand for pupils places, while a band 4 project refers to the provision of desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities. 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 them. In other words, a building project moves through the system commensurate with the band rating assigned to it and as it is ready to proceed. 2 o'clock

The application from Baylin national school has been assigned a band 2.1 rating, reflecting the fact that the standard of its existing accommodation is such that it needs to be extended and refurbished. The Senator will be aware that in February the Minister for Education and Science announced details of 43 major building projects to proceed to tender and construction and 25 high priority projects to commence architectural planning. The project for Baylin was not included in this announcement and, therefore, it will not be proceeding in 2009. The project will, however, be considered for the Department's 2010 capital programme. The Senator will appreciate that the extent of the demand on the Department's capital budget is enormous, providing, as it does, accommodation for new communities, additional accommodation for the unprecedented number of extra teachers the Government has put into the system and the modernisation of existing schools. However, great inroads have been made into addressing these needs and under the last national development plan 7,800 school building projects were delivered.

The Senator will appreciate also it is not possible to advance all the projects needed at the same time. The Minister wishes to assure her, however, that all school building projects, including that for Baylin national school, will be advanced incrementally through the system over time and as funding is available. I thank the Senator again for allowing me the opportunity to outline the Department's position on this matter. I shall bring the points she raised to the attention of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe.