Mr. Eamonn Cusack:

Yes, in every school. We have sought correspondence from the Irish Heart Foundation regarding a small survey it carried out which we have read. It stated that 40% of schools did not have free drinking water. The Department does not accept that and we are happy that every school has a free supply of tap drinking water. It is open to any school that does not have that to apply to us for funding and we will be more than happy to provide funding under our emergency works scheme or our summer works scheme to assist it in providing that. Since that announcement was made we have been contacted by only one school. It was not the case that it did not provide drinking water but it was concerned about the number of drinking fountains it had in the school. The Department is satisfied that all primary schools have a free supply of tap drinking water on their premises.

The Deputy also mentioned PE halls and asked about the number of them. We are not that well placed to give that information. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport published its strategy during the summer and as part of that it is proposing to carry out an audit of all sports facilities around the country. We will liaise very closely with it to include schools as part and parcel of that.