Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 26 Jun 2002

Vol. 553 No. 6

Adjournment Debate. - School Accommodation.

Mr. Ring

A Cheann Comhairle, I thank you for selecting this matter on the Adjournment. The reason I asked to raise this is I have been trying since January of last year to get the list of the schools concerned in my county, and naturally I also tabled a parliamentary question on the issue to which I received a reply last week.

During the week I wrote to you, a Cheann Comairle, and made a complaint about replies to two parliamentary questions tabled to the Department of Education and Science. I am a Member of this House and when I table a parliamentary question, I should get a reply. We are elected to this House and the staff of the Civil Service are in full-time positions. They are there to serve all Members of this House. They serve the Government but they are also required to give me the information I require for my constituents which I seek in parliamentary questions.

It is not reasonable that I still must wait to get a reply to a question I tabled in January of last year, and I probably had that question tabled previously. If, tomorrow morning, a member of the media requested that information under the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, it would be made freely available to him or her. As an elected representative to this House, I expect when I table a parliamentary question that I will get a reply from the Department. It is not too much to ask. I tabled this question on a number of occasions and it is wrong that the Department is allowed to act in this way.

The text of the reply stated what the Department has been telling me for the past 12 months, that it has put a record amount of money into the schools building programme. That was not the question. I asked for a list of schools, both primary and secondary, in County Mayo which are awaiting approval for funding for renovations, refurbishment and any other works and I did not get a reply to that question.

I do not want to come into this House to be awkward. A Cheann Comhairle, I wish you well. I believe that you, as a long established Member of this House, will protect our rights and I know that you will protect my rights. When I table a question, all I want is the answer and I do not want to be told about all the Government money that is being spent. I want a specific answer to the question asked.

In my county I am contacted by school managers, members of school boards of management, principals, teachers and priests asking about schools throughout the county. It is reasonable to request this information. That is why I raised this matter. I hope that the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, can give me that information and I hope that in future when I table a parliamentary question to the Minister for Education and Science, I will get the answer.

This is not a very serious question or a big question. I know that the Department will say that these projects move on from day to day. So be it. I am entitled to get whatever information I seek on a particular day.

I do not want to be disrespectful to the House and I do not want to be disrespectful to the officials, the Department or the Minister. I am depending on you, a Cheann Comhairle, and on the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to ensure that I will get a response to my parliamentary questions in future. I hope that I will get a response to the question tonight. I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for selecting this matter. I am delighted you did. I know you will protect the rights of the Members of this House.

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science (Miss de Valera)

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to discuss this matter in the House.

No doubt the Deputy will be aware of the enormous progress that has taken place over the past five years in improving the quality of school accommodation right across the country. It is only in recent years that there has such been a sustained increase in the level of investment. As a result of the historic underfunding, the reality is that many schools are in need of substantial investment to upgrade to meet modern health and safety requirements. In particular, many second level schools built or extended in the 1970s and 1980s to cope with the expansion of student numbers were low-cost high maintenance buildings which have exceeded their natural lives and will have to be rebuilt over the coming years.

It is not possible to wipe the cumulative deficit of generations immediately. However, the Government will continue to build on the substantial progress made by the previous Government in addressing the historical deficit in educational infrastructure. Redressing the situation will take time and the new Government is determined to ensure that the needs of schools right across the country are met. An Agreed Programme for Government sets out clearly the Government's intentions in this regard. The pro gramme states clearly this will be achieved through a multi-annual programme to be called the schools' modernisation fund which will be financed through the national development finance agency and through the maximum and appropriate use of public private partnership arrangements. The setting up of the national development finance agency will be addressed through the introduction of legislation. It is understood that the Department of Finance will bring heads of the Bill to the Government in a matter of weeks.

A bundle of five second level schools are in construction in the first phase of a public private partnership arrangement involving second level schools. It is envisaged that this innovative method of redressing the historic under-investment in educational infrastructure will be used more extensively in the future.

Earlier this year the planning and building unit of my Department initiated the EU tender process for a pilot project involving the organisation and undertaking of a comprehensive inventory of accommodation, including production of site and building survey drawings and general building condition reports, of approximately 115 primary and post-primary schools in County Kildare and the compilation of the resulting information on a GIS database.

This is a pilot project to aid the long-term planning of capital provision through a precise and detailed identification of accommodation needs. The results of the pilot project will be used by my Department to determine the merits or otherwise of expanding the inventory on a nation-wide basis.

Turning specifically to the Deputy's question, the 2002 building programme is published on my Department's website—

Mr. Ring

I did not get the answer again.

Miss de Valera

—together with details of all school projects that are at construction—

Mr. S. Ryan

Scandalous.

Miss de Valera

As I said, this information is published on my Department's website together with details of all school projects that are at construction, approved to go to tender or in planning, including the projects in County Mayo. It can be located under the heading of "School Building Programme". This list will be updated, as appropriate, on a regular basis. I will advise the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, for whom I am standing in this evening, of the Deputy's concerns and the points he made earlier in the debate.