John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister. I am rasing the issue of St. Mary's Church of Ireland national school in Bagnelstown County Carlow. I have raised a number of school issues in the last months. It is a sign of the time. St. Mary's is a four teacher school which caters for approximately 85 pupils. The school has a very large catchment area. The existing school building has two classrooms. It was hoped that a new four classroom school would be built under the new school building programme. The Church of Ireland community is providing a site outside Bagenalstown for the new school and there is no additional cost in that regard for the Department. The existing school premises has two classrooms and two prefabs, one provided by the Department and the other by the parents council of St. Mary's Church of Ireland national school.

Playing facilities for the students are limited. There is a gravelled area adjacent to the Church of Ireland which doubles as a playground. There is a continuous problem with vandalism of the school facility. It is hoped this will not be such a difficulty on the new site, which is just outside the town. The school authorities have already raised the relevant amount of matching funding for the school development. A considerable amount has been raised and they are now awaiting the Department's sanction to build the new school.

The authorities were told a short time ago that the school was one of ten pilot schemes. Perhaps the Minister would elaborate on that. Planning for the new school is pending but there is a sense a desperation within the board of management and the community that they will be left to one side and forgotten in the current post-Celtic tiger era. I ask the Minister to reassure them that the new school will be built as soon as possible and that the amount of work and effort the community has put into raising the considerable funding will not be in vain. The fact that the community is providing the site for the new school, which is a considerable benefit to the Department, should be taken into account.

The school authorities were guaranteed that the new school would be built in 2006, when the full grant was approved. However, no commencement date was given. The community has been waiting anxiously for the past two years for a firm commitment from the Government that the funding will be released for the new school building. I hope the Minister can give me positive news in that regard.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The position with St. Mary's Church of Ireland primary school, Royal Oak Road, Bagenalstown, is as Senator Phelan outlined. It is a co-educational school catering for boys and girls from junior infants to sixth class inclusive. The enrolment at 30 September 2007 was 82 pupils. The school has a current staffing of a principal, three teachers and one learning support teacher.

In 2005 the school was offered €575,000 to build a new three classroom school under the small schools scheme. However, as the numbers in the school had increased and a larger school was needed, the school authority withdrew from this scheme. The Department of Education and Science now plans to provide a new four classroom school building for St. Mary's on a greenfield site and the project is being delivered by traditional methods. All applications for large-scale capital funding under this form of delivery are assessed in accordance with published prioritisation criteria and assigned a band rating which reflects the type and urgency of the works needed. The project for St. Mary's attracts a band two rating, indicating that a new school premises is needed.

The project was approved for the commencement of architectural planning under the 2007 school building and modernisation programme. A design team was appointed to enable this. The project has now reached stage 2(a) of the architectural planning process which is the developed sketch scheme. The design team's submission in this regard is with the Department and is currently being examined by the Department's professional and technical staff. When this stage is approved, the next stage is detailed design of the building.

The further progression of all large-scale building projects, including the project for St. Mary's, from the initial design stages through to the construction phase will be considered on an ongoing basis in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building programme. However, in light of current competing demands on the Department's capital budget, it is not possible for the Minister to give an indicative timeframe for the progression of the project for St. Mary's to the next stage of architectural planning at this time.

Large-scale building projects are advanced consistent with the band rating assigned to them under the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects. In this regard, a band two rating is the second highest possible. The Minister shares the school authority's desire to move forward the project for St. Mary's as quickly as possible and he wishes to assure the school that this will happen when the requisite funding is available and consistent with the band rating attaching to it.

I thank Senator Phelan for raising this matter. Over the lifetime of the new national development plan the Government intends to provide €4.5 billion for school buildings such as St. Mary's, which is a huge investment. Currently, however, the school must wait pending the position of the capital programme. The Minister will continue the programme with whatever resources he secures this year and he will keep St. Mary's and other schools in mind.

John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)
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I am a former member of a board of management of a national school and I have never seen more homework put into a project, if Members will pardon the pun, on the part of the board of management and the stakeholders involved. There is a contradiction in the Minister of State's remarks. He spoke about the Minister being unable to give a timeframe, yet he later referred to the fact that the Government has committed €4.5 billion for school buildings over the term of the national development plan. If that sum is committed, there is no reason a possible timeframe cannot be given.

It is a matter of urgency, as is obvious from the amount of time and effort put into the project by the local community. The Church of Ireland community is small in that part of the country but comprises a dedicated bunch of people. I hope they are not sidelined due to the economic difficulties the country is going through at present. I hope the Government will adhere to the €4.5 billion school building programme in the national development plan.