Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----was €595 million. Deputy Nolan asked about secretaries and caretakers. I am not an expert on this but some schools have them and there are various thresholds. There are some historical posts, many of which were suppressed during the FEMPI years because it was a discretionary area. They are funded through capitation. The level of capitation is always under scrutiny and we hope to be able to increase it, which is the fairest way to provide them and better than picking out some schools for secretaries and not others.

Deputy Martin suggested we might not have enough schools at second level and I take her point on this. Since I took this job we have approved three new primary schools for 1,500 children and nine new secondary schools with 9,000 places. The ratio is moving towards second level because the bulge was at primary level and has now moved on. The planning is responding to that but that is not to say that there are not pressures. A lot of schools start in temporary accommodation and the process develops - that is the way the system works.

Deputy Byrne asked about the €100 million but one cannot neatly assign it to specific projects. However, as a rule of thumb, a 1,000-pupil post-primary school would be approximately €19 million while a primary school for between 450 and 500 would cost €5 million.