Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for coming here today to deal with this matter, which relates to Scoil Cholmcille on Blarney Street in Cork. From 1 September, the school will have 216 students.If the number of students increases to 220 the school will be entitled to an additional teacher.

Scoil Cholmcille currently has a difficulty due to changing demographics. A school was first built on the site in 1840 and a new school was built a number of years ago. The number of young people living in the area has increased so the school has grown at a very fast pace. I was invited to visit the school to see the conditions for myself. When I visited a few weeks ago I saw that one room that had previously been used as toilets had been converted into a classroom. The school is under severe pressure in terms of space. Engineers have advised the school that three classrooms could easily be built adjacent to the existing structure thus accommodating the current needs of the school. I understand that the school is not on the radar of the Department in terms of being granted consent to apply for planning. The school has drawn up initial plans and submitted them to the Department. Unfortunately, the school has not been given the go ahead to go through the planning process.

The school has another concern. A list of new schools has recently been announced and it is proposed to build an eight-classroom school in the Gurranabraher area of Cork city. I do not think a site has been identified. There would be a natural feed in from south of the Gurranabraher area into Scoil Cholmcille on Blarney Street. The Department has identified that the demographic has changed. It has acknowledged that there has been an increase in the young population or an increase in the number of people who will require primary school placements. Scoil Cholmcille feels that it will be unable to provide enough accommodation and, as a consequence, is under extreme pressure. I would like the Department to indicate that Scoil Cholmcille can move to the next stage and apply for planning.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I have received a briefing from my Department on the situation in Scoil Cholmcille. I gather that the school has a current staffing complement of one principal, 11 mainstream teaching posts, nine special education teaching posts and one shared home-school liaison post. The staffing level will remain unchanged for the next school year.

Last December, the school submitted an application for two mainstream classrooms and seven special education teaching rooms, which corresponds with the extension referred to by the Senator. The position is that the Department is assessing the application. At present, the school has 12 mainstream classroom places, two home-school liaison places and seven special education training spaces. The school appears to be deficient in special education training places but it does not immediately appear to be deficient in mainstream classroom spaces. The Department will consider the application in terms of whether the space applied for is needed. Unfortunately, we are under very severe constraints in terms of not building. I mean we must build in accordance with need, as identified, because there has been such a bulge in the population. On the other hand, the Department recognises that the layout of the school is particularly difficult.

Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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Yes.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Department is assessing what has been proposed and will be in communication with the school.

In terms of new school identification, that is somewhat different. I mean the Department is then undertaking demographic exercises and considering whether there is an emerging demand that will exceed the capacity of the existing schools and, in that context, should it consider sanctioning a new school. Such a new school would start with junior infants and work its way up as the population emerged.As the Senator knows, the Department is trying to take a longer-term planning view on this occasion, setting out its view of new schools from 2019 through to 2022. It is an attempt by the Department to take a long-term view of needs so it can start to plan for them well ahead. The fact that a new school has been identified as a need in the future does not mean there is an automatic search for new capacity in this particular school. They are not associated issues in the Department's view. The other is a longer-term plan which looks at population and housing developments in the area.

All I can say at this point is that the application, which was made just under six months ago, is being scrutinised and the Department will refer back to the school to respond to what has been put forward and to explore what might be possible.

Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the Minister's reply. The school has an extremely dedicated principal, teachers and assistants who work there and there is huge support from the parents. The numbers in the school have increased much faster than a school would normally experience. That is why there is pressure.

There is also the issue of the site itself, but the school has clearly set out in its plan how it can build three rooms. It is a three-storey school and it could be put in place very quickly. That is what the school is seeking in the plans it submitted. It would certainly relieve some of the school's problems.

I accept the Minister's response, but the issue will not go away because the numbers will continue to increase. I also accept the demographic changes in the Gurranabraher area and the need for a new school there. However, I hope that will not prevent the other schools in the surrounding areas continuing to grow their numbers because the population is increasing and will continue to increase.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Clearly, if the population increases and the numbers attending this school increase and so forth, as more schools are allocated the Department will have to consider additional accommodation on that ground. However, on the basis of the current stable numbers in the application, the Department is probably looking at this against the background that it will have to deliver perhaps 18,000 extra places this year so it is confined to concentrating on schools that have a clearly identified need. That is the backdrop against which any application is assessed.

That said, the Department recognises that there are particular features in this school that make it difficult. I cannot anticipate what conclusion the Department will reach as it is assessing the application. However, it has given me that level of insight into how it is assessing it. Hopefully, it will be able to revert to the school and some progress can be made over time on what is recognised as a difficulty.