Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táim ag ardú ceist maidir le Gaelscoil Riabhach, Baile Locha Riach. This is a Gaelscoil in Loughrea, County Galway, which has made a request for a new school building. I understand it has made a formal application for a departmental review of whether it is a building project, as set out in the Department's three-year building plan, that merits inclusion in the rapid delivery projects. The board of management is extremely concerned that the school build will not go to construction in the 2015-16 school year and believes, for the following reasons, it needs to be included in the list of schools that are part of the rapid delivery project. Gaelscoil Riabhach was included in the ministerial announcement in December 2011 to progress to the construction of a 12 classroom school in 2015-16. Since that date, Galway County Council has assisted the Department in the identification and acquisition of a suitable site in the town for the school.

Sites were investigated through 2012 and a suitable site was identified in 2013. Negotiations failed at an advanced stage. I am informed that another suitable site has been identified and that negotiations are again at an advanced stage. However, even with the speediest expedition with contracts, four months for planning permission and sale would still be required. Following this, a tendering process would mean that it would be late 2015 before any construction might commence. If the project was included in the rapid delivery projects it would ensure an earlier commencement in construction and a project completion date prior to September 2016.

At present the school has 30 confirmed enrolments for September 2015 and 24 for September 2016. This is prior to its official enrolment period of December to January, during which it envisages an additional enrolment of at least ten children for each of the years. The board of management is tasked with planning for school improvement and has been working on the basis that a school building will be provided by September 2016. Additional accommodation was required last September due to the appointment of an administrative principal and this was declined by the Department. Additional accommodation will be required in September 2016 on its present site if the new building is not available. Leasing prefabricated buildings at that stage on a year-by-year basis will be expensive for the Department and will require major groundwork on the present temporary site.

At least three of the classrooms are inadequate for the provision of the primary school curriculum in a manner that does not compromise the health and safety of the students. In the past two years the school has implemented the Aistear programme and the volume of the classrooms is limiting its ability to provide this central aspect of the curriculum in a safe manner. By 2016 it envisages that it would be necessary to remove two of the four classrooms, which are less than 45 sq m. Its landlord, Coiste Dúiche, will remove the buildings but the leasing of two classrooms on short-term leases will require an application for additional funding from the Department. I would appreciate if the Minister of State would clarify the position and, in particular, if this application could be forwarded to the rapid delivery project section.