Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Senator Paddy Burke is an intelligent man whom I do not propose to lead astray. He and his party will be aware that significant adjustments are being made to public expenditure.

I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity of outlining to the Seanad the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding the provision of a new physical education hall for Davitt College, Castlebar, County Mayo. The proposed new PE hall project is at an advanced stage of architectural planning and a tender report for the project is under examination by the Department.

As the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, has explained to the House previously, all applications for large-scale capital funding are assessed in the Department against published prioritisation. Each project is assigned a band rating under these criteria which reflects the type of works required and the urgency attaching to them. A band 4.1 rating has been assigned to the project for Davitt College.

Unfortunately, the Minister is not in a position to approve further school building projects, including that for Davitt College, at the present time. As previously indicated, he will not make any decision on further capital expenditure until he has completed the current review of the Department's spending plans for 2008. While the Minister understands that some schools will be disappointed that their projects will not proceed as quickly as they may have hoped, it would be disingenuous of him to create an impression to the contrary.

The Senator will appreciate the Minister must manage his Department's capital budget in a responsible manner and, in so doing, ensure funding is targeted at schools most in need. For this reason, the Department introduced prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects, which were formulated following consultation with the education partners. Thousands of building projects were carried out under the previous national development plan to provide new and modernised educational infrastructure and thousands more will be carried out under the new NDP. However, there must be an order as to how these projects proceed and a realisation that not all building projects can proceed together.

The extent of the demand on the capital budget is considerable, providing, as it does, accommodation for new communities together with accommodation for the unprecedented number of extra teachers the Government has put into the system. We must also modernise much of the existing stock as a result of historical underinvestment in it. This task will not be completed overnight. However, major inroads have been made and the Government will continue to build on the success of the previous national development plan which delivered more than 7,800 building projects. As I stated, this must be done in an orderly and planned manner and on the basis of the most pressing need.

Projects will be advanced incrementally through the system over time, consistent with the priority attaching to them. This approach is critical to ensuring schools know their individual projects will be allowed to proceed in order of priority as and when funding allows. Equally, this position applies to the delivery of the project in Davitt College and is consistent with the overall approach of the Department's schools building programme. I thank the Senator again for affording me the opportunity to outline the current position regarding Davitt College.