Jillian van Turnhout (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister for Education and Skills to the House. I call on Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill to raise his Adjournment matter.

Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister. My Adjournment matter relates to a school in my constituency, namely, St. Mary's national school, Stranorlar, County Donegal. The school was first constructed in 1958 and an extension was added in 1974. The current enrolment is 479 pupils. The school employs 36 people, of which 25 are teachers, seven special needs assistants, two clerical officers and two maintenance staff. A large proportion of the enrolment of 479 students, or 149 of them, are being taught in prefabricated accommodation situated to the rear of the school building. Only four of the 12 permanent classrooms have running water. The annual bill for rented prefabricated accommodation is €58,847. The new enrolments over the past number of years are as follows: 2010 it was 57; 2011 it was 67; and in 2012, which is the current academic school year, there was 74 additional enrolments.

There is a major health and safety issue with the school. I know that the Minister may have visited the school and be aware of it. Certainly senior officials in his Department are aware of the school.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Is it located on the main road, on the right hand side?

Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)
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Exactly. The school is located beside the church.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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It is on the left hand side as one drives to Letterkenny.

Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)
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Exactly. Often there is a funeral, wedding or mass at the church when children arrive at school in the morning. Recently I was at the school when children were being dropped off and there was an obvious hazard. The school is doing everything that it can and its caretaker looks after the arrivals of cars, buses and so forth. Safety is a critical issue.

With regard to school accommodation, I never agreed with prefabricated accommodation even when my party, Fianna Fáil, was in government and there was lots of money being spent. The money should have gone into bricks and mortar. Children should have proper classroom accommodation. That is not too much to ask. The health and safety concerns, the prefabricated accommodation, coupled with close to 500 children playing on concrete at the back of the school at lunchtime and break times, a lack of running water, toilet and sanitary facilities and so on is totally unacceptable. A new school on a new site would be an easy solution. A new site has been identified beside the current Finn Valley sports centre which is a nationally renowned centre with a new swimming pool project under construction. The centre also has a running track of European standard. The proposed site across the road has planning permission and is being purchased by the Department. All that is required is that the school project progresses to the capital programme.

Before my party left government the project had been placed on the capital programme. I know that there are competing demands but there is no school in a similar position and St. Mary's deserves to be included. Its omission means that I no longer know what school project deserves inclusion because this is an emergency case. The project has been progressed so far. I have been in written correspondence with officials in the Department. To be fair to them, they responded and outlined the situation. In the final paragraph of recent correspondence they outlined that the project could be included in the capital programme where funds are made available. I call on the Minister this evening, but he may not have the answer but I plead with him, to consider including the project given its unique circumstances. There are almost 500 children attending St. Mary's national school and they deserve to attend a school that is safe, fit for purpose, has running water and toilet facilities and where they are not in danger of being knocked down going to or leaving school. That is what I seek. This is a simple situation. The project has been developed so all that is required is for funding to be provided over a period to build the project. We live in an era where there is great value for money. We can get value when building such a project because contractors are willing to offer a competitive price. I hope that the Minister will give me good news this evening. He is smiling and I shall take that as a good sign.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I am familiar with the school. Every by-election brings strangers to a constituency and one ends the campaign as an expert on every back alley and lane. I know the school and church well. I am glad for the Senator's illumination of the opportunity to build a decent school. There is no question about the unsatisfactory nature of the existing school and I concur with everything that he has said. I have received representations from other public representatives in Donegal about the school.

My problem, quite honestly, is the following. We are blessed with a growing population. However, I will not be blessed if the children born this morning are in four years' time looking into a field and not a school yard, even if it all is covered in concrete and littered with prefabs and substandard buildings. I shall put on the record the related figures. The pupil enrolment is currently about 515,000 in primary and 361,000 in secondary. That figure, combined together, is expected to grow by 100,000 between 2012 and 2019. In other words, an additional 70,000 pupils at primary level and another 30,000 pupils at post-primary level. Enrolment will continue to rise at post-primary level up to the year 2024 at least. I have heard what the Senator has said.

With regard to additional moneys in terms of the capital programme, buildings were taken off the capital programme, including this project, primarily due to analysis of the demographic growth of the area. There was no dispute about the necessity for a replacement building. If the population was static and in no way dynamic, or not exerting additional demand, then we had to reprioritise the school. When I introduced the five-year capital programme the dominant criterion, and there was more than one, was population growth. I will examine the case as requested by the Senator and I shall see where it is in that context. I cannot give him any indication tonight.

Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate the Minister's response. It is catch-22 for the school and others. A gaelscoil in Buncrana, County Donegal, is also in a catch-22 position. If the current accommodation complement is not up to the required standard then parents will send their children to an upgraded school. It is unfair to penalise a school simply because it has not got the standard of accommodation to attract new pupils and increase its numbers. If a new school was built pupils would want to attend, given the nature of the adjacent sports facilities. I understand where the Minister is coming from. It may be simplistic but I plead with him to examine it again. I am available to give him any assistance that he requires. I do not want to play politics because I know that he is genuinely concerned. I ask him to examine the project favourably given how far it has come over the past number of years. Go raibh maith agat.