Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will direct the building unit of her Department, in conjunction with the Office of Public Works, to change the policy of reserving land for educational purposes to a policy of purchasing land for educational purposes in areas of rapid development, in order that sites for schools can be bought at reasonable prices and in time to provide places for children in these areas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40165/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I should explain for the benefit of the House that traditionally, responsibility for acquiring school sites rested with patron bodies. In 1999 the then Minister took the decision that the Department would purchase sites for new schools where patron bodies were unable or unwilling for whatever reason to do so.

However, the option remains for a Patron Body to purchase a school site if it wishes to have ownership of the property.

The difficulties attaching to site acquisition, regardless of who the purchaser is, or when the site is being bought, cannot be underestimated even where sites are reserved. The willingness of a land owner to actually sell the land is the first critical issue — cost is the other. The House will appreciate that the Department is obliged at all times to achieve value for taxpayers' money. Nonetheless, I want to assure the House that we are moving ahead to acquire urgently needed sites.

In terms of the investment being made available by this Government for site acquisition as part of the Schools Building and Modernisation Programme, I am sure the Deputy will be pleased to know that funding for school buildings has increased dramatically in recent years. We are providing €500 million for the building programme this year, compared with just over €92 million in 1997.

While investment has increased five-fold, we are naturally still concerned to make the right decisions regarding what expenditure should be prioritised for the current year. In this context, substantial expenditure is of course required to meet the building costs of projects that have already been undertaken or are needed immediately. Within the building programme, the highest priority is given to accommodation needed to meet extra demand in rapidly developing areas.

Important changes have been made in recent years to speed up the time in which projects can be completed. These include innovations in the delivery of school buildings such as Generic Repeat Designs and the use of the Design and Build model. In recent years, the Department has also adopted a policy of devolving much greater authority to local school management boards to manage and deliver smaller building projects, which frees up Department staff to concentrate on the larger scale projects.

A number of sources of information are used to plan for the correct level of school accommodation. One of the most important sources is the local authority area development planning process. Apart from this, a substantial amount of the time and resources are dedicated to on-going contacts with the local authorities, especially in Dublin and within the Dublin Commuter belt, to monitor housing development and to establish the timescale for the delivery of extra school accommodation. I am anxious for local authorities to use both the powers that they have through the planning process and the resources at their disposal to assist my Department in meeting the demand for schools in their areas.

For example, by zoning areas as Strategic Development Zones (SDZ), local authorities can ensure that sites are reserved for schools and also that the schools must be developed in line with the housing and other developments. I would like to see more local authorities use the SDZ option for major developments.

Another way in which local authorities can work with my Department is in the development of school provision in tandem with the development of community facilities. This enhanced co-operation has the effect of minimising the Department's land requirements and thus reducing site costs while at the same time providing local communities with new schools with enhanced facilities. This model will be used in Fingal to deliver approximately 20 schools in the coming years. The Council will acquire the sites in return for which the design of the schools will be varied to meet community needs.

The range of enhanced combination facilities can include large sports halls, stage and dressing rooms, community meeting rooms, all-weather pitches and playgrounds. These additional facilities, which will be over and above the Department's standard specifications for schools, will be available not only to the school during normal school hours but also to the local community in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays. Again, I would like to see this approach replicated throughout the country.

These examples serve to illustrate both the extent of the work being carried out with local authorities and the importance which the Department attaches to relationships with them. I have made my views with regard to the need for more local authorities to play a proactive role in relation to school sites known to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government. Members of this House can of course also assist this goal at local level by encouraging their representatives on local authorities to ensure that their Council does all they can to assist in the provision of schools in their area.