Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it provides me with an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the Government's strategy for capital investment in school building projects over the next five years and to clarify the current position on the application for major capital funding from Gaelscoil Philib Barún, Tramore, County Waterford.

Gaelscoil Philib Barún is a primary school catering for both boys and girls and operating under the patronage of the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. The school has been in operation since 1986 and was afforded permanent recognition in 1996. Enrolment for the 2011-12 school year was 219 pupils, an increase of 13% over the past five years. While enrolments have increased overall in the area in the past five to ten years, projections at primary level for the Tramore area up to 2018 indicate that enrolments will remain largely unchanged, with no anticipated increase in demand for additional classroom accommodation in the area over that period.

The brief for the major building project is to provide a new eight-classroom school plus accommodation for three full-time special education teachers and appropriate ancillary accommodation, including a general purpose room. The design team for the project was appointed on 12 March 2012. The project is at an early stage of architectural planning. A standard pre-stage-1 meeting with Department officials, the school authorities and the design team was held in the Department in July 2012. The pre-stage-1 meeting is a relatively recent introduction, as part of my Department's revised design team procedures, and is designed to consider all of the site-specific design options as presented by the design team and to agree on the best design option in taking the project forward. Due to issues arising from the pre-stage-1 presentation for Gaelscoil Philib Barún, a revised pre-stage-1 report was requested. This was received in the Department in November 2012 and, following its review, the school authorities and the design team were advised in December 2012 that the project was authorised to complete stage 1.

The design team is currently working on the completion of the stage 1 report and it is anticipated that the report will be submitted to the Department shortly. Once this stage is complete the design team will proceed to stage 2a, which involves developing a more detailed design in preparation for the submission of applications to the local authority for planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificate. These statutory applications, along with the completion of the tender documents for the project, comprise stage 2b, which is the final design stage of the architectural planning process.

Due to competing demands on my Department's capital budget imposed by the need to prioritise the limited funding available for the provision of additional school accommodation to meet increasing demographic requirements, it was not possible to include the project for Gaelscoil Philib Barún in the five-year construction programme announced in March 2012. School building projects, including the new school for Gaelscoil Philib Barún, which have not been scheduled for construction in the five-year programme but which had previously been announced for initial inclusion in the building programme will continue to be progressed to final planning stages in anticipation of the possibility of further funds being available to the Department in future years. The project for Gaelscoil Philib Barún remains available to be considered for progression in that context.