Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 1206: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her plans to expand school capacity in Kildare town to take account of the decision to sell the land at Magee Barracks for the purposes of the affordable housing initiative. [25476/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The process of assessing the need for new or additional educational facilities at primary or post primary level in any given area entails consideration of all relevant factors, including enrolment and demographic trends, housing and other developments and the capacity of existing schools to meet the demand for places.

As part of this process, my Department is included among the prescribed authorities to whom local authorities are statutorily obliged to send draft development plans or proposed variations to development plans for comment. As a matter of course meetings are arranged with local authorities to establish the location, scale and pace of any major proposed developments and their possible implications for school provision. Where extra provision is necessary, my Department seeks to optimise the use of existing provision in the first instance. It is necessary to adopt this approach due to the limited availability and prohibitive costs of new sites.

With regard to Kildare town, the issue of the provision of affordable housing in Magee Barracks will require consultation with the local authority with particular regard to the extent of the provision and the likely timescale for its delivery. An assessment of the capacity of existing schools in the area to meet any anticipated extra demand will follow together with plans to make extra provision available if this is deemed necessary.

In the meantime, if the management authority of any school in particular is experiencing an increase in demand and is unable to meet this demand it should contact the school planning section of my Department.