Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta fá choinne na ceiste. Caithfear a rá go mbeidh an infheistíocht chaipitil níos tábhachtaí. My Department’s capital allocation for the school sector in 2019 amounts to €622 million while the allocation last year amounted to €539.6 million. Overall targets for the delivery of school places set out in the Revised Book of Estimates 2019 are on a par with 2018. The breakdown between additional places and replacement places can vary from year to year, depending on the nature of projects and the particular priorities relating to demographics and refurbishment.

Construction activity in 2018 and 2019 will involve over 130 large-scale projects and approximately 280 smaller-scale projects under the additional accommodation scheme. These projects enable significant progress in delivering some 40,000 school places, including additional and replacement places, and the replacement of over 600 prefabs, which is a key element of our prefab replacement programme. There will be enhanced sports facilities through the construction and modernisation of 48 PE halls at post-primary level and 82 general purpose rooms at primary level. In addition, the enhancement and modernisation of PE facilities in schools also will facilitate community usage of these facilities. There will be delivery of over 200 modern science laboratories, which will support the delivery of the reformed science curricula and the roll-out of computer science as a leaving certificate subject.

In addition, under the summer works scheme my Department is funding a total of 307 school projects, with projected expenditure of €40 million in 2019. This will benefit schools as they upgrade windows, meet curricular requirements and make fabric improvement to buildings. A total of €117 million has been allocated to date under the current summer works scheme in respect of categories 1 to 9, which has resulted in the approval of 942 school projects.

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