Dominic Hannigan (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I appreciate the opportunity of raising this issue. The Le Chéile Educate Together School was established six years ago on the grounds of Drogheda grammar school on Mornington Road, just outside Drogheda facing the River Boyne. In recent years the school has grown to accommodate a student population of 325, which is 50% higher than that of Drogheda grammar school whose site it occupies. During the past six years it has been housed in prefabricated buildings and still does not have a permanent structure. I visited the school yesterday and although we are not yet in the depths of winter, all the staff still had their coats on because heat was escaping from non-insulated rooms. In addition, damp patches were coming up through the floors. In 2007, it is a bit much to ask teachers and children to put up with such conditions. It is only because of the staff's dedication that the children's education is not suffering.

Apart from the vast cost of renting 19 prefabricated units from a private company, the heating bills are excessive because of heat loss through non-insulated walls. In addition, no economic analysis has been carried out to see whether or not it would be better to build a new school now and be done with it. If we compared the cost of a new school to the cost of renting temporary buildings with heat loss, it would make more sense for the Minister to put a new school in place. Earlier this year it was hoped that a new school would be built because, after much toing and froing, the Department managed to purchase the site. At that time, all the parents and teachers thought a permanent school was just around the corner, but nothing has happened since then. Meanwhile, there has been a deafening silence from the Department. The priorities for school buildings seem to have suddenly changed. Priority now seems to be focused on schools around the Dublin region to the detriment of schools further outside the capital, such as the proposed permanent Le Chéile one.

Years ago we had cutbacks and spending freezes, but now we have the Orwellian concept of changes to a school's priority banding. That is how we get round the terminology. As a result of those changes, however, children and teachers are losing out because they are causing more delays. In this case, for example, it means some children will not be able to join their brothers and sisters there next autumn because no permanent school building is in place. Some 197 children are already on the enrolment list for 56 places at that school. Every place there is oversubscribed by four to one. If that is not a priority, I do not know what is.

I would like to ask the Minister of State two simple questions. I know he is provided with a response that is probably three or four pages long and which possibly will not give me the answer, although I hope I am wrong about that. My first question is when will the building work commence no the school? Second, when will it be finished? That is all I need to know.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Hannigan for raising this matter to which I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin. It gives me an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the extent of the work which will be carried out under the school building and modernisation programme in the coming years and, in this context, the position with regard to the Le Chéile Educate Together School on Mornington Road, Drogheda.

At the outset I want to say that 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 consistent determination to improve the condition of our school buildings and to ensure that the appropriate facilities are in place to enable the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum.

The Government has dramatically increased investment in the school building programme from just over €90 million when we first came into office, to €600 million this coming year. Under the lifetime of the national development plan almost €4.5 billion will be invested in schools. This is an unprecedented level of capital investment which reflects the Government's commitment to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post-primary schools.

Next year alone, some €600 million will be invested in large-scale building projects concentrated mainly on providing school accommodation in rapidly developing areas. This level of funding will facilitate a phased roll-out to the construction of over 350 projects throughout 2008 and early 2009 that will, when complete, provide another 12,000 permanent places. It will facilitate the completion of construction on up to 200 projects to provide over 8,000 additional school places. It will also enable the purchase of sites for the smooth delivery of the school building programme, with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas, and the progression of further projects through the architectural planning and design stages.

The €4.5 billion being made available under the NDP will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State. It will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where needed, as well as continuing to upgrade existing school facilities. This investment will allow the Department to continue the acceleration of the school building programme, which commenced during the lifetime of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested in school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

The Le Chéile Educate Together national school opened with provisional recognition in September 2001. It was granted permanent recognition in September 2002. The school is currently located in prefabricated classrooms on the grounds of Drogheda grammar school. The long-term needs of the school have been assessed and agreed with the school authority. It is proposed to build a 16-classroom school on a site recently purchased from the Drogheda grammar school.

The project has been assessed in accordance with the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects and has been assigned a band 1 rating. Further progress will be considered in the context of the multi-annual school building programme, the focus of which is on developing areas, such as those in the east Meath area. I will convey to the Minister for Education and Science the specific questions raised by Senator Hannigan.

Dominic Hannigan (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State.