This motion concerns the urgent need for the construction of a new school at Summercove national school in Kinsale in view of the large number of prefab classrooms in the yard and the delay in having this project put together. I would like to share my time with Senator Michael McCarthy.
Schools Building Projects.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
In 1997 the Department recognised that a new school was warranted. It was originally a small two-teacher school and now has 11 or 12 teachers. What concerns me most is that there is a total of nine prefabs on the school grounds and the square footage of the prefabs quadruples the original size of the old school. It is worrying that one of the prefabs is 26 years old and falling apart, another is 20 years old, one is ten years old, one eight years old, and so on. I do not blame the Minister but the year-on-year cost of these prefabs is more than €53,000. With current low interest rates that would service a loan of approximately €1.25 million. Over ten or 15 years, had it been built in 1997, that school would have been paid for without this waste of money on prefabs that are not conducive to a good education and are inappropriate.
I do not blame the Minister but it annoyed me that the Office of Public Works identified a site, a planning application was submitted and then another agent of the Government, the local authority, refused planning and proposed an alternative site, never thinking that this had gone on for ten or 20 years. The local authority could have been of a broader mind and given planning. If the planning had been granted the school would have been built by now. It is a disgrace there is such a delay. It is a very old chestnut and I hate bringing it up again because people can say our Government has been in power for a long time. However, it is so frustrating for the 11 teachers, the parents and the pupils that it is worth raising in the Seanad. I am delighted to see Senator McCarthy supporting the call.
I thank Senator O'Donovan for generously sharing his time with me on the issue of Summercove national school and I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I support this call because I do not think it is economically viable to spend money renting prefabricated buildings which will never be permanent educational infrastructure. There are probably instances in the Minister of State's constituency. I raised this at a broader level earlier. Senator O'Donovan point is well made. We spend a great deal of money renting prefabricated buildings. They are not classrooms, never will be and never were intended to be. However a custom has developed through practice whereby they formulate an extensive percentage of the school property portfolio. Perhaps it is the case that the accommodation group in the Department of Education and Science can no longer deal sufficiently well with this. I have very little faith in that section of the Department and we need to create a new body to deliver this type of infrastructure. The Department must produce the necessary educational infrastructure, in this case a new school for Summercove.
I pay tribute to the school principal, Ms Kathleen Lane, and the teachers and staff who have to work in very difficult circumstances. The pupils are at the heart of this issue.
Senator O'Donovan and I, along with other candidates, attended a very well-organised meeting at the Carlton Hotel in Kinsale prior to the general election, and we all gave firm commitments that in whatever capacity we emerged after the election we would pursue this issue politically irrespective of who was in Government. The downturn in construction provides a double benefit, the obvious one being the delivery of a much needed school for the area and the other being the stimulation of the local economy by taking people off social welfare and putting them back into the workforce where they contribute to the Exchequer as taxpayers, which also leads to a social welfare saving. Every job lost in construction or any related area costs the Exchequer €20,000. While this is beyond economics and is more important than that, if one were to take that narrow viewpoint, the economic saving for the State is self-explanatory. I urge the Minister of State, in so far as he can, to deliver a favourable response.
I thank the Senators for raising this matter. I thank Senator O'Donovan for his candid outlining of the facts which he, as a Senator on the Government side, has been raising for quite some time. Unfortunately, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, cannot be here to respond.
Modernising facilities in our existing building stock as well as the need to respond to emerging needs in areas of rapid population growth is a significant challenge and one of the priorities of the Minister for Education and Science. The Government has increased investment in the school building programme to €656 million this year. This is an unprecedented level of capital investment which reflects the commitment of the Government to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post-primary schools.
It underpins a particular emphasis on the delivery of additional school places in rapidly developing areas while continuing to develop the Government's commitment to delivering improvements in the quality of existing primary and post-primary accommodation. It will also enable the purchase of sites to facilitate the smooth delivery of the schools building programme, again with the focus being on site requirements in rapidly developing areas.
Summercove national school has a staffing of a principal, seven mainstream teachers and two learning support teachers. The school's enrolment at 30 September 2008 was 199 pupils, a 15% increase on 2003 figures. The Department will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the most appropriate accommodation is delivered for the school's needs.
As the Senators are aware, the Office of Public Works, OPW, which generally acts on behalf of the Department on site acquisitions for schools, previously identified a suitable site and a letter of offer was issued to the owner in 2006. Unfortunately, however, this offer was rejected. An alternative site has been identified by the OPW. An inspection was carried out on this new proposed site and the report was received in the Department in April 2008. In view of the current budgetary constraints, the Minister for Education and Science is not in a position to provide a definite date for acquiring this site. The further consideration of the proposed site acquisition and the proposed building project for the school will be considered in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme.
I again thank the Senators for affording me the opportunity to outline to the House on behalf of the Minister the position on the need for the location of a site and provision of a new school building for Summercove national school. I wish I could be more definite but, unfortunately, I cannot be.
I am disappointed with the Minister of State's response in that the cost of renting prefabs year on year represents an approach that is penny-wise but pound-foolish. If the school authority has to continue to operate from prefabs for another ten years, that would represent a further €600,000 plus in rent down the drain. That is the net point.
When the school authority was given the go ahead for the project and a site was secured with some difficulty, I was extremely disappointed that the local authority, for no great reason, refused planning permission for it. That caused further frustration when project should have been progressing.
I hope the Minister of State will convey to his senior Minister my frustration and disappointment that this school project is being long-fingered. It is not economically viable that substantial funds should be paid for the renting of prefabs that are not conducive or appropriate to good education for teachers, children or their parents.
I ask Senator McCarthy to be brief in his comment.
I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his indulgence and his masterful craft of delivering guidance on procedure and adhering to it.
In support of Senator O'Donovan's case, I point out that this is another example, as if one were needed, of a lack of joined-up thinking. The State, on the one hand, deserves to be commended on requesting the OPW to identify a site for the school, but the local authority, on the other hand, refused planning permission for the school. That lack of joined-up thinking needs to be examined at a broader level. In this instance, national Government has done one thing while local government has done something else. In any event, I urge that progress is made to a point where the site can be acquired and a new school built.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.05 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 2 April 2009.