Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. St. Mary's boys national school, Belturbet, County Cavan, applied to the Department of Education and Skills under the 2011 summer works scheme to construct a new flat roof extension to contain four additional toilets and a new disabled toilet of solid block construction with asphalt concrete roof. The school has a staffing level of three teachers and an enrolment of 76 pupils.

The summer works scheme, SWS, covers projects in school buildings such as gas, electrical and mechanical works, roof replacements and repairs, window replacement, toilet upgrades, access works and structural improvements that, ideally, can be delivered during the summer months. Due to the scale of demand for funding under the 2011 summer works scheme, it was not possible to grant aid all applications. As outlined in the circular governing the operation of the scheme, applications for works in the higher categories of eligible works, that is, gas, electrical and mechanical works, were prioritised for funding. It simply was not possible to include St. Mary's boys national school in the list of 453 successful schools that benefited from the €41.2 million that was available under the scheme. A letter to this effect issued to the school on 12 April 2011.

As part of the Government's jobs initiative, €40 million in funding was made available for building works in an additional 374 schools, details of which were announced in May 2011. These funds allowed school projects such as for special needs access, improvement works to toilet facilities, roof works and window replacements, submitted under the 2011 summer works scheme to be considered further. In other words, we used the original list of applications to award an additional 374 schools with an additional sum of €40 million.

The application from St. Mary's boys school for toilet facilities was considered under the jobs initiative. The technicality was that it involved the construction of a new building and this disqualified it. The summer works scheme and the jobs initiative applied to improvements, repairs or additions to existing structures. I am prepared to look at the appeal that has been received and hope to get a response to the Deputy as quickly as possible.

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