Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 340: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will withdraw support for plans to locate a school (details supplied) at a site in Deansrath in view of the strong and logical reservations expressed by parents living in the Clondalkin village area; if her Department will renew efforts to locate a suitable site in the village area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4357/07]

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 341: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the strong reason for keeping a school (details supplied) in Clondalkin village; and if all of these issues have been or will be considered by her Department in terms of deciding whether or not to push forward with plans to locate a new school site at Deansrath. [4358/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 340 and 341 together.

The Department has acknowledged the need for a site for a permanent building for the school to which the Deputy refers. The site on which the school is currently located is not available, however, a 0.93 acre site adjacent to the school was offered by the owner. This is even smaller than the current school site and is not adequate to provide a modern purpose built 16 classroom school with the full range of ancillary accommodation which all new schools enjoy. Circa 2.5 acres is the minimum amount of land required.

Enormous difficulties were encountered in trying to acquire a site in what is a built up urban area. In fact, no suitable site at all emerged under the acquisition process. In the circumstances the Department had to consider other options and was fortunate that the County of Dublin Vocational Education Committee not alone had land that could be developed but was willing to make this land available.

There are any number of schools up and down the country that start in one location and are permanently located in another. It also has to be remembered that unlike other primary schools, Gaelscoileanna do not have catchment areas and are not, therefore, confined to being accommodated in specific locations although the Department will always try to re-locate schools as close to an original location if this is possible. It is not realistic, however, in a large urban area to expect this to be easily achieved. School communities themselves are usually aware of local land issues so re-locations are rarely if ever a problem particularly when what is on offer is a multi million Euro investment to ensure that the children concerned have a comfortable high quality learning environment.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 342: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her plans put in place since the Newcastle and Rathcoole/Saggart Local Area Plans were adopted; the additional population increase identified over the next five years; the additional primary and second level school place provision that has been earmarked; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4359/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is the Department's intention to construct a new 24 classroom primary school to cater for the long terms needs of the Newcastle area. The acquisition of a site for this purpose is being actively pursued.

In Rathcoole the Department plans to increase post primary capacity to 1,000 pupil places.

In Saggart, the Department has acknowledged the need to re-locate the existing school to a Greenfield site so it can be expanded to a 16 classroom facility. The acquisition of a site for this development is also being actively pursued.

All of these projects command a Band 1 priority rating under the published prioritisation for large scale building works and they will be progressed as soon as possible under the school Building and Modernisation Programme.