IPPN

Published: 10 October 2008

Fine Gael

Fine Gael National Press Office Press Release
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Leinster House Contact: Alan Shatter TD
Dublin 2 Nick Miller Children's Spokesman
Ireland 086 6992080

Fine Gael Front Bench Children's Spokesman Alan Shatter TD has said very serious questions must be asked about the Department of Education's selection process for including school building projects in the Primary School Building Programme.

"I am very concerned by comments by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe on 3rd October which make it clear he has relied solely on population projections when choosing the locations for new permanent primary school buildings. He has failed to take into account the number of pupils already attending primary schools which are operating wholly or partially out of prefabs, or the number of new pupils enrolled for 2009 and onwards. Population projections provide useful additional information, but it is a major error to make decisions based on them alone.

"The schools included in the Primary Schools Building Programme announced on 29th September are very unevenly distributed geographically. The reason for this became clear with the Minister's comments on 3rd October regarding the use of a 'state of the art colour coded mapping technology' to help him anticipate where 100,000 new school places will need to be created over the next seven years.

"This week I tabled a Dáil Question to the Minister asking how many children in schools across Dublin South are currently taught in prefabs; whether the prefabs are owned or rented; the costs involved, and the current position regarding the provision of permanent school buildings.

"The Minister's response states that his Department 'does not hold information on the numbers of pupils in individual schools who currently occupy temporary accommodation' and 'does not have a central database of those schools that are currently fully or partially accommodated in temporary or prefabricated accommodation'. With regard to the amount of public money the Department of Education is spending on buying and renting prefabs the Minister states: 'this information is not held in a readily accessible aggregate form for the areas requested'.

"It is clear that not only is the Minister not fully informed, but his Department is so disorganised it cannot access important information that should be used to determine school building priorities and the proper allocation of public funds. The Department information systems are so defective they are relying on school information figures which are 12 months out of date. For example, Holy Trinity National School in Leopardstown has no permanent building. It operates solely out of five prefabs. But with 70 new junior infants enrolled for September 2009 the school will need more prefabs next year. When I raised the predicament of this school in the Dáil this week the Junior Minister, responding on behalf of Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe, quoted attendance numbers for the school which are 12 months out of date.

"Primary school Principals, Boards of Management and Parents' Associations up and down the country are desperately holding public meetings, organising campaigns and lobbying public representatives in an effort to secure permanent school buildings so that children can be taught in proper classrooms in schools which have the facilities to which they are entitled. It is reasonable to expect that decisions made within the Department of Education on which schools get new buildings or extensions should be made on the basis of need by a fully-informed Minister."

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