Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 11: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding his proposal to build a new secondary school in Kingscourt, County Cavan; the progress made towards same regarding drawings and planning and so on; the year he will guarantee the building and staffing of the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19133/09]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I was pleased to announce recently approval in principle for the establishment of a new post-primary school for Kingscourt, County Cavan.

In this regard, an examination of the demographics and projected pupil numbers by the Forward Planning Section of my Department satisfied me that a facility for between 300 and 400 pupil places will be sustainable in this area in the medium term.

As my decision was only recently announced, the Deputy will appreciate that plans for the new school are at an early stage. There are a number of preliminaries that will have to be completed before an actual building project for the new school can be advanced. As a first step, officials from my Department will be meeting with the VEC shortly to discuss groundwork issues, appropriate feeder schools etc.

In addition, my Department will need to give consideration to how the new school should be procured. This will include an examination of the PPP model. Three separate PPP bundles have been announced to date and these are progressing through the procurement process. The make-up and timing of further bundles will be determined by my Department in consultation with the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA).

The issues to be considered in the timing and bundling of these schools include site availability for each school, geographical spread and the estimated total cost of the proposed bundle.

When a decision has been taken as to how the new school will be procured, the normal procedures will be put in train to prepare the project for advancement such as the preparation of an educational worksheet and the drawing up of schedules of accommodation.

When all of the preliminaries have been completed, consideration can then be given to the inclusion of a project in the School Building Programme for the appointment of a Design Team or inclusion in a PPP bundle. It will be a matter for the Design Team appointed to the project to prepare the building plans, apply for planning permission and deliver the building.

I am committed to advancing the project but the necessary preparatory procedures will have to be followed before this can happen. At this stage of the process it is not possible to be specific about the timeframe for delivery of the project.