Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. My Adjournment matter arises from the press statement issued last week by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, which confused me and many other people throughout the country in terms of the type language used and its lack of substance. The statement referred to schools that would progress through architectural planning but those schools have been at the architectural planning stage for years.

I ask the Minister of State to clarify the press statement in regard to two schools in Carlow, one being Scoil Mhuire gan Smál in Carlow town. I remind the Minister that in 2000, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál celebrated 40 years in operation. The then Minister, Deputy Michael Woods, visited the school and made an excellent speech complimenting the present and past staff members on the great work they have done in the school. He announced that the school building programme would be going ahead for the school but, unfortunately, five years later I am raising it in this House. That says it all.

In the case of Bennekerry national school, which I attended, it is still waiting for the building programme to proceed and has been for many years. The school is growing rapidly. As the Minister of State is aware, Carlow town is expanding rapidly and Bennekerry school takes in a large number of children from the local area, as well as some children from Carlow town. Bennekerry, Palatine, Kernanstown Terrace and all the areas in between are developing rapidly and that is putting enormous pressure on the school. In the case of Scoil Mhuire and Bennekerry national school, some might be concerned that by the time the new school building is built, it might already be out of date.

I hope the Minister of State will have good news for us today. I suspect he might be able to tell me these schools are proceeding to planning permission stage but I want a guarantee that as soon as they receive planning permission from the local authority they will be fast-tracked on to the tendering process and so on. I understand that even if the schools were granted planning permission in the next few weeks, it will be at least three years before the school building is ready for use. That is intolerable for both the staff members and the current and future pupils.

I will illustrate a case to the Minister of State about the school building programme. He may not be fully aware of it with his accounting background but I am sure many representations have been made to him on it in his own constituency. In Athy, a neighbouring county, Athy community school had a pupil who was confined to a wheelchair. For some reason, the general purpose room in the school was upstairs, which in hindsight was a mistake. Instead of the Department putting a new lift into the school its officials said it would approve the building of a new school, which made perfect sense. The student in the wheelchair left that school two years ago and the new school has still not been built. That is an example of the delay in the school building programme.

I welcome the initiative taken by the Government on the devolved grants, which is the way forward. I do not understand the reason we have such a centralised system in terms of school building. If schools need extensions or refurbishment, they should be given the money because they know what to do best. Why must everything go through the school building unit in Tullamore, which slows down the process?

On devolved grants, I take this opportunity to inform the Minister that St. Mary's Church of Ireland school in Bagenalstown was given €500,000 as a devolved grant, which is all very well but the school needed €1 million. That school is now in difficulty because it has to raise the remaining €500,000. If the school does not accept the grant offered by the Department, it might have to wait years for a new school building.

These are real issues and I urge the Minister to put her weight behind the school programme and allocate funding. Devolved grants are the way forward. We should put an end to the centralised system and give autonomy to the principals and staff in schools. That would speed up the process, which is ridiculously slow. In one school three principals have dealt with the building programme. Three principals have retired and moved on in that period. That is an indication of the slowness of the process. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Browne for raising this matter as they provide me with the opportunity to outline to the Seanad, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, the extensive work being undertaken by the Department of Education and Science under the School Building and Modernisation Programme 2005-2009 and to outline the current position on the proposed building projects for scoil náisiúnta Bhinn an Choire, Bennekerry, and scoil náisiúnta Mhuire gan Smál, Green Lane, Carlow.

Modernising facilities in our 3,200 primary and 750 post-primary schools is not an easy task given the legacy of decades of under-investment in this area as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth. Nonetheless, since taking office, the Government has shown a sincere determination to improve the condition of our school buildings and ensure that appropriate facilities are in place to enable the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum. We have progressively increased funding for the school modernisation programme in recent years to achieve our goal with an aggregate total of almost €2 billion allocated for this purpose since 1998, the largest investment programme in the history of the State.

Since the beginning of this year the Minister has made a number of announcements relating to the school building and modernisation programme. This year alone, €270 million will be allocated to primary schools and €223 million to post-primary schools for building works. That represents an increase of 14% in the 2004 allocation. The range of projects being supported include the following: 141 major building projects already on site and a further 28 due to commence in the coming weeks; 122 major school building projects countrywide, which will prepare tenders and move to construction over the next 15 months; 192 primary schools which have been invited to take part in the small and rural schools initiative and the devolved scheme for providing additional accommodation; up to 120 schools which have been given approval to rent temporary premises pending delivery of a permanent solution to their long-term accommodation needs; 43 schools which have been authorised to start architectural planning of their major projects and 124 which have been approved to progress through the architectural planning process; and 590 schools which were given approval to complete essential small-scale projects under the summer works scheme.

The proposed projects for scoil náisiúnta Binn an Choire and scoil Mhuire gan Smál were assessed against the published prioritisation criteria for large scale projects which were revised recently following consultation with the education partners. The projects were assigned a band 2.4 rating to indicate that they require extensions of less than 50% of their accommodation and moderate refurbishment works. I am pleased to inform Senator Browne that the Department of Education and Science has included the schools among the 73 primary school projects authorised to progress through the architectural planning process during this year. Further progress will be considered in the context of the school building programme as it goes forward.

I thank Senator Browne for providing me with the opportunity to outline the status of the school projects in question and to highlight the significant work being undertaken by the Department of Education and Science. The school building and modernisation programme is being implemented to ensure that infrastructure of the highest standard is available to the entire school-going population.

Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)
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While I thank the Minister of State for his reply, I am still no wiser. What does the phrase "projects being authorised to progress through the architectural planning process during this year" mean in layman's terms? I do not expect the Minister of State to answer immediately, but perhaps he will find out for me. Does it mean the projects are authorised to seek planning permission? On obtaining planning permission, will the projects be allowed to proceed immediately to the tendering process or will they have to undergo a further waiting period? I would appreciate if the Minister of State would make a telephone call to find out. Can the projects proceed to planning permission stage?

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I will find out for the Senator.