Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to take this Adjournment debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, who, unfortunately, cannot be present. I thank Senator Cannon for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the Seanad the Government's strategy for capital investment in education projects and to outline the current position in respect of St. Catherine's national school, Aughrim, County Galway.

As the Senator will be aware, all applications for capital funding are assessed in the planning and building unit of the Department. 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., ultimately leading 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 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 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 exists currently, but there is a high demand for pupil places, while a band four project makes provision of desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities. Each band rating has a number of subcategories that describe more specifically the works needed and the urgency attaching to them.

The school's enrolments have remained fairly constant. In 2009, the school had 117 pupils, which represents only a 1% increase in enrolments in the past five years. The board of management of St. Catherine's national school, Aughrim applied for an extension of two extra classrooms, a general purpose room, a staff room and a remedial or special needs room in May 1998. The school was selected as one which appeared to be suitable for delivery of its building project under the permanent accommodation scheme 2005 and the school authority was offered funding to build two mainstream classrooms and two resource rooms. The school authority accepted this offer and proceeded with the planning of this project while, at the same time, appealing the allocation under the scheme. Subsequently, having considered their options under the scheme, the school authority notified the Department that it had decided to withdraw from the scheme and requested that it would be considered for inclusion in the main programme for delivery by the traditional method, in line with the project's priority band rating.

The Department proceeded to review the long-term projected staffing figure, on which the school's accommodation needs are based. Following this review, it was determined that the long-term projected staffing for St. Catherine's national school, Aughrim will be for a principal plus eight mainstream teachers and this was notified to the school authorities on 30 January 2007. Following a site visit to the school, it was decided that a new school was required and that the existing school site of 1.2 acres would not be suitable to accommodate a new eight classroom school. The patron has indicated that parish land of 3.6 acres to the rear of the existing school site will be made available to accommodate the provision of the new eight-classroom school, bringing the total extended site to 4.8 acres.

The application from St. Catherine's national school, Aughrim, has been assigned a band 1.1 rating, the highest priority that can be assigned to a project. In the meantime, the Department devolved a grant to the school in 2003 to purchase a 50 sq. m. resource room to cater for special needs pupils and the school has sanction to continue to rent two mainstream classrooms.

It is also open to the school to apply for funding under the summer works scheme which is designed to address the integrity of existing school buildings. In this regard, the school has been successful in its application in 2006 for roof works and in 2007 for sewerage works. It has made an application again under the 2010 summer works scheme. These applications are being assessed.

However, the level of demand on the school building programme is such that all projects cannot be carried out together. They will have to be carried out over time in a structured and coherent manner and this is the reasoning behind the Department's published prioritisation criteria. The project for St. Catherine's national school will be carried out consistent with this approach. In the intervening period, the school can apply for temporary accommodation to meet its needs if this is necessary.

Again, I thank the Senator for raising the matter and, as I have already said, to assure him that the Minister is committed to advancing the project for St. Catherine's national school.