Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 424: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to establish a developing areas unit in his Department to liaise with local authorities, identify where new schools are needed and ensure that they are delivered in the fastest possible timeframe. [18356/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Programme for Government commits my Department to establishing a Developing Areas Unit.

Initial work on establishing and assigning dedicated staff to the Unit began in the latter part of 2007 and it is now fully operational.

In terms of its work programme for 2008, the Developing Areas Unit is advancing the delivery of 30 new primary schools which are planned to be in place for September 2008. These projects are being delivered in areas which have been identified as areas of rapid population growth. Minister Hanafin announced the details of the individual projects in February.

To deliver its 2008 programme, the Developing Areas Unit has been working closely with relevant Local Authorities on the acquisition of sites and on general pre-planning issues.

Project Managers, together with architectural, engineering and quantity surveying services were recruited from the private sector in October 2007 to prepare the planning applications, undertake the necessary surveys and oversee the delivery of the schools on each site. Sites for each of the projects have been identified and site master-plans have been developed by the technical teams.

An EU tendering process to establish a drawdown contract for the off-site construction of permanent and temporary accommodation has been completed. The successful tenderers for the construction of each individual project have been notified and at this stage, construction of a number of the schools has already commenced. The programme for the delivery of these projects is broadly on target, however, the time-frames are very challenging and risks to the timely delivery of these new schools still exist and are being managed by the Developing Areas Unit.

When taken with a number of other projects in developing areas involving extensions to existing schools, approximately 9,000 additional school places will be provided for September 2008.

In the meantime, the Forward Planning Section of the Department is identifying the areas where significant additional accommodation will be needed for 2009 and onwards. This is also being done in close consultation with local authorities. Forward Planning Section's findings will feed into the Developing Areas Unit for further action.

My Department is satisfied that the approach which it is now taking to the identification and delivery of extra school places in rapidly developing areas will, subject to the availability of funding, ensure that those places will be provided when and where they are needed.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 425: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to improve the arrangements for acquiring sites. [18357/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government sets out a number of measures in relation to school provision including improving arrangements for the planning for new schools.

My colleague, the Minster for Environment, Heritage and Local Government Minister Gormley published draft planning guidelines on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas for public consultation in February which reinforces the need for new development to be phased in line with the availability and provision of essential social and community infrastructure such as schools, amenities and other facilities, and for timely consultation with my Department in relation to new schools needs. Moreover, the draft guidelines state that:

"No substantial residential development should proceed without an assessment of existing schools capacity or the provision of new school facilities in tandem with the development."

In addition, the procedures to be adopted by planning authorities in integrating schools planning issues into their development planning processes are outlined in the Planning Guidelines on Development Plans.

My Department has been developing in partnership with the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the City and County Managers Association a code of practice for planning authorities on the provision of schools in the planning system. It is intended that these guidelines will be issued in the coming weeks.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 426: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to ensure the maximum use of the top-class standard designs for primary schools that have been developed to deliver new buildings in the fastest timeframe possible. [18358/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Professional and Technical staff in my Department regularly reviews and update the design of school buildings. A suite of technical guidance documents is available on my Departments website to assist design teams in best practise in the design development of projects and to encourage the design team to take a complete design team approach from project conception.

My Department has developed Generic Repeat Designs to reduce the cost, speed up the delivery of new schools particularly in developing areas and ensure that the most up to date technologies are used. This year further design templates are being developed, using appropriate off site construction technologies, for repeatable buildings.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 427: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to prioritise energy efficiency and eco-design in new school buildings. [18359/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware the Programme for Government commits my Department to prioritise energy efficiency and eco-design in new school buildings. Indeed my Department has a strong record in developing low energy educational buildings. For the past eight years my Department has been using a process called the DART approach to develop sustainable and energy efficiency in educational buildings. This acronym focuses on four key areas, namely; Design, Awareness, Research, and Technology.

The Department takes a holistic approach and has developed technical guidance on energy efficiency in school designs as an integral part of the suite of technical guidance documents. These guidelines encourage the design team to take a complete design team approach from project conception. There is particular emphasis on elimination of over design, improved thermal envelope design and improved passive solar design, natural ventilation and day lighting along with advanced heating and lighting controls.

It has been demonstrated that all Primary Schools designed and built in line with the above policy and the technical guidance documents can have an energy performance that is 2.3 times more efficient than international best practice. The performance of my Department in this area has been recognised at both National and International level with sustainable energy awards for excellence in Design and Specification and recently by the Taoiseach's Public Service Excellence Awards.

The development of energy efficiency and eco-design will continue to be kept under review to take account of improvements in technology in the market place.