Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

We all have that in common. I thank the Deputies for affording me the opportunity to outline the position of the Department of Education and Science with regard to the allocation of funding for school building projects and, in particular, the project at Dysart national school, Mullingar. Dysart national school is accommodated in classrooms in a building which was built in 1941. It has an enrolment of approximately 38 pupils and a staffing of a principal teacher and one assistant teacher.

The Department of Education and Science is moving towards a model of devolving funding, responsibility and authority, as appropriate, for building projects directly to school management authorities. Devolving of funding to school management authorities allows them to have control of their projects, assists in moving projects more quickly to tender and construction and can deliver better value for money.

This devolved initiative was originally introduced on a pilot basis for 20 schools in the 2003 school building programme and due to the positive feedback from schools was extended in the school building programmes of 2004 and again last year. While appropriate for many schools, the Department is aware that the devolved initiative is not necessarily suitable for all national schools seeking to refurbish their school building or to build new accommodation. It is not the intention of the scheme to leave schools with massive fundraising requirements. Rather, the level of funding should determine the scope of works undertaken. However, in some cases, the school site or building can be problematic while in others, the extent of the required work is too extensive for the funding available under the initiative.

In such situations, schools have a number of choices. They can reduce the scope of intended works, fundraise to cover the shortfall or withdraw from the scheme and be considered for inclusion in the mainstream school building programme in line with the project's priority band rating. This school was offered a grant of €350,000 under the devolved initiative in 2004 to provide new accommodation. The board of management accepted the grant offered and proceeded with the architectural planning of the project.

The school has received planning permission for a new school building subject to a number of conditions. Construction work on the new school started during the summer of 2005. It is clear from the information supplied by the school to officials in the Department of Education and Science that the grant of €350,000 will not be sufficient to construct the building as designed. Officials from the Department met the school authorities on 24 November 2005 to discuss this difficulty. An appeal for additional funding was considered by the appeals board and it is satisfied that under the terms of the scheme, the school does not warrant additional funding. The board of management has been informed of the decision.

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