Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Government is determined to ensure that every child is educated in a suitable and comfortable environment. Since 1997, great advances have been made in transforming school accommodation throughout the country through an investment of €3 billion. This has funded more than 7,800 individual school projects in the past seven years alone. The National Development Plan 2007-13 will involve an investment of more than €4.5 billion in school accommodation. The first roll-out of the new NDP will be in the current year with a budget for 2007 of €542 million-€306 million at primary and €236 million at post-primary level.

While the challenge before us in reversing decades of under-investment in school buildings and in responding to emerging needs in new population areas is great, we are making huge progress. Currently, my Department has in the region of 1,300 applications for building works on the main building programme. Applications range from small-scale projects in existing schools to new schools. A number of schools would have applications for more than one project.

The level of work being done under the school building programme is at an all-time high. The number of projects approved under all the different schemes last year was over 1,300. A further 1,500 projects are expected to be delivered in 2007. The 1,300 projects approved last year include 109 large-scale projects, 778 schools benefiting from the summer works scheme and 210 schools approved under the small schools and permanent accommodation schemes.

Of the 109 large-scale projects announced last year, 55 were approved in February and April 2006 and 54 in November 2006 to proceed to tender and construction over the subsequent 12 to 15 month periods. The Department's main focus is on setting the initial parameters for these projects. Thereafter, responsibility for progression to detailed design, planning permission, tendering and construction is devolved to local school management authorities and their design teams. This approach facilitates a steady stream of these projects proceeding to construction during the course of 2007 and into early 2008.

To date, school authorities have already commenced construction on 17 of these projects and it is intended most of the remainder will commence construction during 2007. Given the timeframe for moving to construction was 12 to 15 months, and the earliest of these projects were announced 13 months ago, I am satisfied they are on schedule. As I said, 778 schools were given approval to proceed with refurbishment projects as part of the 2006 summer works scheme. More than 95% of these projects have been undertaken, with the remainder due to be delivered later in 2007.

During 2006, approval was also given to 210 schools under the small schools and permanent accommodation schemes. These schemes enable schools to address their accommodation needs on a devolved basis without the need for major interaction with my Department. Projects announced in 2006 typically commence construction in 2007.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

To date, 68 of these projects are under construction and it is expected the remainder will have commenced construction during 2007.

To conclude, there has been an unprecedented level of activity under the school building programme in recent years. While increased investment has been a central reason for this, the introduction of new schemes and changes in how projects are managed have also made a major difference.

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