Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am replying to this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn. I thank Senator O'Brien for raising this matter, as it provides me with an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the Government's strategy for capital investment in education projects and the current position regarding St. Sylvester's infant school, Malahide, County Dublin.

As the Senator will be aware, the school authority submitted an application for major capital funding for an extension and refurbishment project. As part of the assessment 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. A 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. The project for St. Sylvester's infant school has been assigned a band rating of 2.4. The progression of all large-scale building projects, including this project, from initial design stage through to construction phase is contingent on the availability of funding within the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme and the competing demands for this funding.

In the case of the temporary accommodation in St. Sylvester's infants national school, the Department carried out a technical inspection of the accommodation concerned in October 2010 as part of an overall review of temporary accommodation in schools throughout the country. The accommodation concerned was found to be in good condition and well maintained. Subsequently, it was determined that better value for money could be achieved by purchasing the rented units at the school rather than continuing with their rental. As the Senator advised, the Department has received correspondence this week from the school advising of a deterioration in the rented units. In light of this correspondence, the Department will be contacting the school to arrange a further technical visit to examine the accommodation concerned. The school authorities have been advised that the purchase of the accommodation does not affect the progress of the school's major capital application for permanent accommodation which will continue to be considered under the school building and modernisation programme.

I thank the Senator again for giving me the opportunity to outline to the Seanad the current position regarding St Sylvester's junior national school in Malahide.