Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I have already said that and I said also that the summer works scheme will be reintroduced next year.

I now turn to the current status of individual applications for building works. The school building and modernisation programme operates on a multi-annual basis. This means that the Department must constantly have projects ready to proceed as and when the budgetary situation allows. This approach ensures that the allocation in any given year is, on the one hand, spent but on the other hand it is kept under control. Any other approach would make the management of the budget virtually impossible.

The projects allowed to proceed at any given time are those that have the highest priority. For example, at the time of an announcement, while there might be a number of band 2 projects ready to go to tender and construction, the number and cost of higher band 1 rated projects ready to proceed may be such that those on band 2 cannot be approved at that time. As to when lower banded projects can proceed, this is determined by the extent of higher competing priorities on an on-going basis and the level of funding available.

This is the dynamic of the school building programme and that is why it is not possible to provide indicative delivery timeframes for lower banded projects. These can only be given when there is certainty that they can proceed, taking into account the financial resources available in any given year. Projects that will deliver extra capacity in developing areas have been given priority under the banding system since its introduction.

Delivering additional capacity in the rapidly developing areas must be a priority for the school building programme. It is projected that 100,000 additional school places will be required over the coming years. Senators will be aware that in the past newly-recognised schools have generally had to open in temporary accommodation and reference has been made to that here. I have been anxious to move away from this approach in developing areas, so there is a particular pressure on my budget this year. We are working hard to ensure that as many new schools as possible open in permanent accommodation. That is a particular pressure on our building budget but it is the right thing to do.

We will find this year that schools will open in developing areas with brand new buildings that have been built off site and dropped in with new innovative methods used, and those buildings will not be full this year——