Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 500: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the benefits that may be available where a number of national schools in a parish intend to merge into one school; if their building request will be expedited or if it will be subject to the normal process. [3059/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Initially agreement needs to be reached between the management authorities of schools in question to amalgamate. The final decision on amalgamation rests with the patron of those schools, subject only to Departmental approval. Application forms for large scale capital must be submitted by the management authority of the schools involved.

Architectural assessments would have to be carried out on all the existing school buildings to determine which, if any, would be suitable to act as hosts for the proposed rationalisation and what are the longer term accommodation needs of the area. These assessments will enable my Department to take a view on how infrastructure can properly be developed to facilitate the proposals.

When this has been completed, the project will be assigned a Band rating under the published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects and progress on the project will be considered in the context of the multi-annual School Building and Modernisation Programme.

The reasons for amalgamation can be many and varied ranging from, demography (decline in enrolments) to desire for co-education, to financial reasons, to condition of school buildings, to parental/teacher demand etc.