Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Clarity must be given in that there is a €50 million underspend on schools at present. There were timing issues and all Members of the House are acutely aware of this because they speak to me about these issues and the frustrations in the delays in a number of projects either through planning or other issues which frustrate the process by which the delivery programme takes place.

A total of 4,000 schools were supported this year through the summer works scheme. This is a significant scheme whereby almost everybody who applied was successful. We have also given conservation grants and rolled out the ICT grants. All of this is under hand. It is my intention to have expenditure in my capital programme completed this year. I will also introduce a number of new systems and methodologies in the delivery of the capital programme on the basis of new initiatives in devolved procurement through VECs and local authorities, which have commenced in counties Monaghan and Louth. I have also moved on transferring the worth of the rental of prefabs, as the Deputy raised quite rightly, into a composite amount of money that can be devolved to schools to build an extension. I believe in the ability, particularly of schools with less than six classrooms and their boards of management, to deliver these types of programmes. We have a new geographical information system, GIS, inventory and site acquisition system. We are dealing with the programmes and it is my intention to have that money spent.

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