Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will try to get an answer to the questions regarding the balance of teacher education and the costs there.

Rainwater harvesting systems were first introduced for major school building projects in 2008. Since then, all major school building projects, where site conditions and circumstances allow and where economically viable to do so, can incorporate a rainwater harvesting system into their accommodation brief. While fitting the systems in new schools during construction is relatively straightforward, retrofitting them in existing schools is much more difficult and expensive because of the various dedicated pipework systems both within the building and externally underground and the amount of making-good work that is required in each instance. For existing buildings it is more cost-effective to minimise the demand for water through installing measures to reduce water usage, such as push-type spray taps, low flushing toilets, urinal controls, repairing leaks and so forth. To this end, schools were invited in 2010 to apply for water conservation measures and funding of almost €10 million was made available to promote water conservation measures as part of this initiative. A list of the schools whose applications under this scheme were successful is available on the Department's website at www.education.ie.

Harvesting is different from conservation. It should be considered by schools and it is being considered in a positive way in the new-build area, but that is a small percentage of the total stock of our schools.