The proposed refurbishment and extension project for the School referred to by the Deputy is at an early stage of architectural planning. My Department recently completed a review of the long term projected enrolment in the school and consequently the brief for the building project has been revised from 16 classrooms to 24 classrooms. The Design Team have been requested to submit a Stage 1/2 submission based on this revised brief. When this documentation is received in my Department my Officials will arrange a meeting with the School Authorities and their Design Team in order to evaluate the documentation. It is envisaged that unless there are very exceptional circumstances involved, the meeting will be sufficient to authorise the project to progress to the next stage of architectural planning.
Further progression of the project will be considered in the context of the Schools Building and Modernisation Programme 2007-2013. Over €4.8 billion will be provided for school building infrastructure under the new NDP 2007-2013.