Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

The project for Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair involves the provision of a new physical education hall and is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. This project has a band rating of 4.1 under my Department's prioritisation criteria for major capital projects. Once it has been approved to go to construction, it is intended that my Department will be co-financing the project with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. There has also been local community fundraising for the project. The next step in the process will be for this project to be approved to proceed to tender and construction when funding allows.

Projects are selected for inclusion in the school building and modernisation programme on the basis of priority of need. This is reflected in the band rating assigned to a project. There are four band ratings, of which band one is the highest and band four the lowest. Band one projects, for example, include the provision of buildings where none currently exists but there is a high demand for pupil places, while a band four project makes provision for desirable but not necessarily urgent or essential facilities, such as a library or new sports hall.

Other factors taken into account in the selection of projects include the stage of progression through the architectural design process, the need to achieve an appropriate balance of capital expenditure on a multi-annual basis between primary and post-primary building projects, the need to ensure adequate funding is available for the purchase of sites for key projects and the need to provide additional school places in rapidly developing areas to meet increasing demand while at the same time balancing this with the need to maintain investment in the improvement of existing school buildings.

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