Beverley Flynn (Mayo, Independent)

I have already spoken to the Minister for Education and Science about this project. I hope the school can be given a realistic assessment of its position as it has been led astray over the past several years.

In 1999, the school was sanctioned for a schools building project and a design team was appointed. It was instructed to proceed to stage 2 in June 2000. In May 2002, the Department wrote to the board of management and advised that the design team had succeeded in bringing the project within the Department's guidelines but that the overall costs had increased from what had been originally anticipated. The Department requested the design team to reassess the project with a view to significantly reducing the cost.

The Minister may ask why the school did not apply for a grant under the summer works scheme. It did not apply because it believed that it was only a matter of sanctioning the moneys to enable the extensions and alterations to go ahead. Surprisingly, in 2006 the Department asked the school to apply through the devolved grant scheme. In 2007, for the first time it applied for the scheme even when it had already been sanctioned in 1999. The school has appealed the decision. Does it have any realistic chance of succeeding this year? If not, at least we can then inform the school to get its act in order and proceed in 2008 with a realistic objective. If the Minister is clear on this, it would put the minds of parents, teachers and pupils at rest, as they are very anxious about this situation.

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