Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The amount of money we will spend on school capital projects and school buildings is the amount that was announced in the original five-year programme. We will not underspend. The amount for DIT is the amount allocated to it. If DIT is ahead in its spending and spends its money this year rather than next year, it does not follow that it will receive more. I reiterate the Government's very strong commitment to spending on schools. Many projects in the higher education sector have been sitting on lists since 2011 and have not been advanced. DIT was prioritised because of the work that was happening on the Grangegorman campus. The Government is very strongly committed to the school building programme, and anything that was delayed this year was not delayed because we wanted to underspend in the area but for genuine reasons. Some of it was devolved and we had no control over the delays. The delays, which are regrettable, will be made up next year, but not at the expense of the school building programme. We are not trying to spend less on schools and more on higher education. The emphasis is very much on schools.