Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 334: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the plans in place to facilitate the growing needs of a college (details supplied) in County Cork which has experienced an increase of more than 100% in its enrolment since 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43727/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers has applied to my Department for capital funding for a large scale extension project. The application has been assessed in accordance with published prioritisation criteria for large scale projects and assigned a band 1 rating.

Information in respect of the current school building programme along with all assessed applications for major capital works, including the project referred to by the Deputy, are now available on the Department's website at www.education.ie.

The priority attaching to individual projects is determined by published prioritisation criteria, which were formulated following consultation with the Education Partners. There are four band ratings under these criteria, each of which describes the extent of accommodation required and the urgency attaching to it. Band 1 is the highest priority rating and Band 4 is the lowest. Documents explaining the band rating system are also available on the Department's website. Officials from my Department met with representatives of the school authority on Monday of this week, 23 November 2009 and updated them on progress of their project. As the Deputy will be aware, the project was included in the list of projects to enter architectural planning that I announced in February and my Department will continue to work with the school authority in this regard.

With regard to teaching resources the total teaching staff allocation to the school in question for the 2009/10 school year is 33.71 whole-time equivalent teacher posts. This includes an allocation of 3 whole-time equivalent posts in respect of the increased enrolment in the current year.