Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter and I will specifically raise it with the Minister for Education. Summercove National School is a Catholic co-educational primary school under the patronage of the Bishop of Cork and Ross. In September 2020, the school had an enrolment of 223 pupils with a staffing of a principal, eight mainstream class teachers and three special education teaching posts. It is the Department’s intention to progress the construction of a new school building for the school as part of the school building programme and to underwrite the community of Kinsale, which the Senator mentioned.

The Department has a large-scale and ambitious roll-out of school building projects under the national development plan, NDP, and as part of Project Ireland 2040. The continuation of construction work on school building projects during the lockdown period in early 2021 was an important enabler to facilitate the delivery of our school building programme. During the NDP period of 2018 to 2020, there were 526 projects completed under the large-scale capital programme and the additional school accommodation scheme. These projects delivered in excess of 48,000 school places, including permanent accommodation for 229 special classes and additional capacity for 67 classrooms in 14 special schools throughout the country. There are also some 250 school building projects on-site, many of which will be completed in 2022.

The patron of Summercove National School has recently acquired a 1 ha greenfield site for the construction of the school, subject to planning permission being obtained. It is intended that the school building will provide capacity for eight classrooms, ancillary accommodation and a two-classroom special education needs base. The Department is finalising the accommodation brief for the project, which is part of the preparatory work associated with the architectural planning process. This includes the procurement of a design team. The Department will be in further contact with the school authorities as the project progresses to the next stage. Once the design team has been appointed, there are standard procedures to be followed in the progression of the project through preliminary design, detailed design, planning permission and then ultimately proceeding to tender and construction.

The Senator has alluded to the work he is doing with the community and I know he has been raising this within the Department of Education. I will also raise that community aspect because it is an exciting project to get on the road from the point of view of the principal, board of management, students and wider community. There is a strong commitment from the Department, as the Senator can see, but there are processes that have to be embarked on, right through to the planning permission stage and hopefully we will get on-site in due course.