Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)
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It is very pleasant to have the Minister of State in the House once again. What funding does he intend to make available to resurface the school yard at Brusna national school, Ballaghadereen, in the interests of health and safety? The school's playground is in a very bad state of repair and becomes a serious health hazard when it rains. There have been many accidents in the playground. I appeal to the Minister of State to make funding available to repair it in the interest of the children who use it. I know he will do everything in his power to secure this funding.

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to outline, on behalf of the Department of Education and Science, the position on the application for funding from Brusna national school, Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon, and to outline the outcome of the summer works scheme.

Brusna national school has a staffing level of one principal plus two mainstream class teachers, and one shared resource teacher, based at the school. The school had an enrolment of 74 pupils on 30 September last. An application for grant aid for the resurfacing of the school yard was received and processed under the summer works scheme recently. The summer works scheme was announced in December 2003 and replaced all existing small scale building project schemes with the exception of the grant scheme for minor works — commonly known as the devolved grant scheme — at primary school level.

The specific aim of the scheme is to ensure the precise targeting of funding for small scale capital works at schools that are most in need of resources in accordance with the highest priority as set by the schools themselves. A dedicated fund of €31 million is allocated to the scheme, of which €15 million is being set aside for projects at primary level and €16 million for projects at post-primary level. In all, 442 projects will be carried out under the scheme this year, 292 of which will be in primary schools and 150 in post-primary schools.

Applications were assessed and categorised by reference to the criteria detailed in the circular letter governing the scheme. In brief, these categories were: Category A — urgently required structural improvements; category B — projects required to comply with fire officer and insurers' requirements; category C — access for all; category D — curricular requirements; category E — improvement works; and category F — works required for the external environment. Based on the information supplied on the application form, Brusna national school was assigned a category F rating.

To ensure maximum spread of available funding among applicant schools, attention was focused on the top priority application for each school categorised under the published criteria. The available funding was then distributed in accordance with the criteria hierarchy as detailed in the circular letter governing the scheme.

Not all applicants, including Brusna national school, were successful this year. Each unsuccessful applicant under the scheme will receive a letter from the Department of Education and Science outlining the reason works were not approved. The letters will be issued to the schools as quickly as possible.

Another summer works scheme will be advertised later this year and it will be open to any unsuccessful applicants to apply under the new scheme. In the meantime, given that the primary responsibility for health and safety issues relating to school buildings rests with the school managerial authorities, the grant scheme for minor works — the devolved scheme — should be utilised as necessary to address basic maintenance issues. The level of grant paid amounts to €3,809 per school plus €12.70 per pupil, and it was paid last December for the current school year.

Emergency works that may arise in the course of the year will be considered as they arise in the context of available contingency funding.