Vol. 377 No. 1
asked the Minister for Education if a financial allocation has been offered by her Department for the purpose of having a new national school erected in Frenchpark, County Roscommon; the amount of any such allocation; and the type of accommodation which it is intended should be provided there.
292.
asked the Minister for Education, when the present national school in Frenchpark, County Roscommon, was erected; the cost to her Department at that time; the amount which has been expended by her Department on the care and maintenance of the building since; and the reason the building has deteriorated to an extent that warrants its replacement now.
330.
asked the Minister for Education the date her Department received and approved plans for a new national school at Frenchpark, County Roscommon; when construction will commence; the size of the school envisaged; and the cost of same.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 291, 292 and 330 together.
I would refer the Deputies to the answer which I gave on 1 December 1987 to a question regarding the construction of a new national school at Frenchpark, County Roscommon. The consultations entered into with the school authorities have not yet been concluded. My Department's Primary Buildings Branch wrote on 14 January 1988 to the chairman of the school's board of management setting out in considerable detail the range of options which are available to the school and the level of grant assistance which would be forthcoming from my Department towards the cost of the provision of essential classroom accommodation. A reply to this letter is awaited.
It is not the practice of my Department to disclose the financial details of national school building or improvement projects which are or have been the subject of grant applications, such information in individual cases being considered confidential as between my Department and the school authorities.
The existing permanent building at Frenchpark national school was erected in 1951-52. My Department does not have records of amounts expended on the care and maintenance of the building since its erection, as such matters are the responsibility of the school authorities at local level and are financed indirectly through the capitation grant towards operating costs of national schools. A number of factors and not simply the poor condition of the existing building gave rise to the school's application for a grant for the replacement of the existing school, including the fact that enrolments at the school had outgrown the original two classrooms, and that it would not have been economically sound to extend the building.
Deputy Naughten's question regarding receipt and approval of plans for a new national school is understood to refer to recent submissions by the school authorities' architect, and the position at present is that my Department has yet to receive definite proposals in the context of the present discussions.
