John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Paddy Burke for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the Department of Education and Science's proposals for a new sports hall at Davitt College in Castlebar, County Mayo. The Department received an application from Mayo VEC for a physical education hall at the college in March 1996. The proposed project was included in section 8 of the 2004 schools building programme. I am pleased to inform the Senator that the project is at an advanced stage of architectural planning, a full design team has been appointed and the architectural design of the project is progressing. Departmental officials have received a combined stages 4 and 5 submission from the VEC on the detailed design and the bill of quantities. That is the final stage of the design process before the invitation of tenders.

Officials from the Department of Education and Science are reviewing all projects that were not authorised to proceed to construction as part of the 2004 schools building programme, including the sports hall project at Davitt College, with a view to including them in the multi-annual schools building programme from 2005. The Department intends to publish the 2005 schools building programme, which will operate in a multi-annual framework, after the current Estimates and budgetary process has been concluded. I thank the Senator again for raising this issue in the Seanad.