Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 64: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her Department is making provision to provide more school places for pupils entering the primary school system in 2012 in view of the recent report (details supplied) that highlighted that Ireland's birth rate is expected to increase by 11% compared to 2006; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28454/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The annual total of births in Ireland has been increasing since 1995. As a direct consequence of this, enrolments at Primary level have been increasing since 2001/02 and are projected to continue increasing for the foreseeable future. Inward migration is another factor pushing up enrolment at both primary and second level in recent years together with an underlying increase in participation — especially beyond the compulsory school-leaving age.

While any projection into the future is tentative and dependent on many factors that are not subject to policy control or absolute confirmation, it is highly probable that enrolment at primary level will increase by at least 20% over the coming decade. That implies an increase on last year's level of 458,000 pupils at primary level to approximately 555,000 in 2015/16. In other words, enrolment will regain the level recorded in 1989 by the year 2015.

To deal with this increasing demand for school places, the Government is providing funding of €4.5 billion over the lifetime of the new National Development Plan (NDP). This will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State and it will enable my Department to ensure that school places are available where needed as well as continuing to upgrade existing school facilities. This investment will allow my Department to continue the school building programme which commenced during the life time of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested in school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

The budget for 2007 is the first year of the roll out of the new NDP. This funding will enable my Department to continue to provide modern school accommodation on an on-going basis, particularly in developing areas. This year alone around over €540 million will be spent on school building infrastructure with over 1,500 projects on my Department's school building programme. Construction in 2007 alone will deliver over 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for over 17,500 pupils, mainly in developing areas.

Innovations in the delivery of school buildings such as Generic Repeat Designs and the use of the Design and Build model ensure that new school buildings are delivered in the fastest time-frame possible. My Department has also adopted a policy of devolving much greater authority to local school management boards to manage and deliver smaller building projects, thereby freeing the Department to concentrate on the larger scale projects. My Department has also improved forward planning through greater cooperation between it and Local Authorities and the publication of Area Development Plans.

The main focus of the school building programme is to deliver additional capacity in the rapidly developing areas. It is projected that 100,000 additional school places will be required over the next number of years. I am conscious of the need to provide more school places quickly and these are being delivered. As part of our strategy for the provision of school places for 2008 and onwards my Department has also initiated a tender process for a drawdown contract facility that will be used to provide additional school places in the rapidly developing areas. This drawdown contract facility is aimed at providing school accommodation in very short timescales using modern methodologies such as off-site construction. Both I and my senior officials have met with the relevant local authorities in relation to the acquisition of suitable sites for new schools and, where possible, pre-empting any planning issues that may arise. This close cooperation with local authorities will help ensure that additional school places are provided in the developing areas within the earliest possible timeframes.