Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The allocation to the schools building and modernisation programme for 2005 amounts to €493 million of which €270 million is being allocated to schools at primary level and €223 million to post-primary level. This represents an increase of 14% on last year's allocation. The programme is underpinned not only by a significant increase in overall funding but also by major improvements in the administration and management of the funding.

My Department is moving toward a model of devolving funding, responsibility and authority as appropriate for building projects directly to school management authorities. The devolving of funding to local level will allow schools to have ownership of their projects and assist in moving projects in a specific timeframe to tender and construction and will also deliver better value for money. I have indicated that I plan to increase the level of funding available to schools under the small and rural schools initiative and I will make further announcements in this regard shortly.

The introduction of multi-annual capital envelopes requires a revised approach to how building projects are scheduled through the design process and on to tender and construction. Projects must be in the pipeline so that there is a smooth flow of projects through all stages.

The experience in 2004, whereby a record number of projects were selected for proceeding to tender and construction at a single time, while ideal in the context of announcing the entire building programme in one annual announcement, makes it less easy to take account of emerging trends generally and specific issues arising on individual projects such as delays in getting planning permission. I decided, therefore, to announce details last month of 122 major projects which will prepare tenders and move to construction in the next 12 to 15 months. While some of the projects will be ready to go on site earlier in the year than others, all the projects should be capable of being put on site in that timescale.

I will follow this recent announcement with a series of announcements relating to the school building and modernisation programme that will include details of schools identified as suitable for construction under public private partnerships, an expansion of the number of schools that will be invited to deliver their building projects on the basis of devolved funding, details of schools with projects approved under the 2005 summer works scheme which is being allocated €60 million, almost twice that spent in 2004, schools whose projects will further progress through the design process and schools that will be authorised to commence architectural planning.

I assure the Deputy that the changes to the format of the school building programme will in no way detract from the level of openness and transparency which is an ongoing feature of the programme.

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