I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter this evening. I am pleased the Minister of State, Deputy Mary White, is present to answer in the debate and I trust she will have some good news for us. Kilcredan national school was built in the 1970s. It was an amalgamation of three small primary schools. The policy at the time was to amalgamate small primary schools. It is a fantastic school. Some ten years ago in 2000, it was agreed with the Department of Education and Science that there was a need for an extension because very little work had been done in the 30 years since the school was put together. A design team was appointed and a plan submitted. The plans were examined in 2005, some five years later and the matter has been ongoing for some time. In the meantime, the people in the area raised €220,000 to buy land and provide a car park for the extension. The people have not been found wanting and they are not coming with their hands out. They have been working very hard to raise funds for this project.

They seek permission to move to the next stage, that is, to allow for planning permission, tenders and construction. This is what they seek from the Minister and the Department. There will be 256 students in the school next September. I realise the Minister of State is from a rural area. This school was built in the centre of a parish. Three primary schools were amalgamated from two villages, Ballymacoda and Ladysbridge. There was no agreement on where the school should go so they put it in the centre but that solution worked. It is an outstanding rural school.

The demographics for the coming five years inform us there will be further increases in enrolment. At present, half the school is in prefabs. The plan is to build an all-purpose hall, a library, a staff room and 12 classrooms in total. It is not a great deal to ask for. This has been ongoing for ten years and the people in the area have worked remarkably hard. They have gone over and above the call of duty in this case in raising funds and in meeting the Department more than half way on the cost of this project. I hope the Minister of State can come up with something positive this evening or, if not, that she can go back to the Department and impress on the staff there the importance, urgency and the need to match the goodwill of the people in this case. I look forward to the Minister of State's response with interest.

I am responding to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Mary Coughlan. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the Dáil the Government's strategy for capital investment in education projects and to outline the current position with regard to Kilcredan national school, Kilcredan, Ladysbridge, County Cork.

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. The Government has shown a consistent determination to improve the condition of our school buildings and to ensure that the appropriate facilities are in place to enable the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum. The allocation of funding for school buildings in 2010 is just less than €579 million. This represents a significant investment in the schools building and modernisation programme. This level of funding, at a time of great pressure on public finances, is a sign of the Government's commitment to investing in school infrastructure and it will permit the continuation of the Department's programme of sustained investment in primary and post primary schools, a commitment under the revised programme for Government.

All applications for capital funding are assessed in the planning and building unit of the Department. The assessment process determines the extent and type of need presenting based on the demographics of an area, proposed housing developments, condition of buildings, site capacity etc. leading to an appropriate accommodation solution. As part of this process, a project is assigned a band rating under published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects. These criteria were devised following consultation with the education partners.

Projects are selected for inclusion in the school building and modernisation programme on the basis of priority of need. This is reflected in the band rating assigned to each project. In other words, a proposed building project moves through the system commensurate with the band rating assigned to it. There are four band ratings overall, of which band 1 is the highest and band 4 the lowest. Band 1 projects, for example, include the provision of buildings where none currently exist but there is a high demand for pupil places, while a band 4 project makes provision for desirable, but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities, such as a library or a new sports hall. The proposed building project for Kilcredan national school is currently at an early stage of architectural planning. The project for the national school has been assigned a band rating of 2.4 under the published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects.

All major projects on the Department's capital programme progress through the same structured process of architectural planning, which is divided into clearly defined stages. The stages of architectural planning are set out in the Department's design team procedures and are necessary to comply with Department of Finance guidelines, which require that capital projects be fully designed prior to going to tender. They also ensure proper cost management of capital projects and facilitate compliance with statutory and public procurement requirements.

There are five stages involved in the progression of major school projects through architectural planning. The project for Kilcredan national school is currently moving towards completion of stage 2a which involves the detailed design of the new accommodation to be provided and any refurbishment work to be undertaken. The brief for the project includes the construction of a four classroom extension increasing the school to a 12 classroom school.

Following discussions with the Department's technical staff in May of this year, the school's design team was requested to provide an addendum to its earlier stage 2a submission. This addendum was recently received in the Department. The submission with the addendum information is currently being reviewed and the Department will revert directly to the school when that review is complete.

The next step for this project, once stage 2a is approved, will be to seek planning permission, a fire certificate and a disability access certificate and prepare tender documents as part of stage 2b of architectural planning. Once these necessary statutory approvals have been secured, the project can be considered for progression to tender which forms stage 3 of the architectural planning process.

The progression of all large scale building projects, including this project, from initial design stage through to construction phase will be considered in the context of the Department's multi-annual school building and modernisation programme for 2011 and subsequent years. However, in light of current competing demands on the capital budget of the Department and taking into account the necessary statutory approvals which I have outlined that still need to be secured, it is not possible at this time to give an indicative timeframe for the progression of the project to tender and construction.

On behalf of the Tánaiste, I thank the Deputy again for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the current position regarding the school building project for Kilcredan national school. As a rural Deputy, I appreciate the efforts the local community has made in regard to this project.