Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 209: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she proposes to take seriously the recent findings of the national task force on obesity on childhood obesity and provide long awaited fitness and gym facilities at schools (details supplied) in Dublin 15. [17575/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to funding the provision of PE, general purpose and outdoor play areas in schools as part of the schools' capital investment programme. Providing recreation areas such as hard core ball courts, general purpose rooms at primary level and PE halls at post-primary level are considered an integral part of the design stage for any major refurbishment programme of existing school buildings — providing always that the site is of sufficient size — or where a new school on a greenfield site is being built.

Applications for the provision of enhanced PE or sports facilities in schools are considered in the context of all other applications on hand for capital investment, for example, applications for new schools, refurbishment projects, extensions, new sites, remediation programmes and so on.

As part of the 2004 school building programme and, in recognition of the fact that 2004 was the European Year of Education through Sport, 14 stand alone PE halls in post-primary schools were sanctioned to go to tender and construction — eight of these through a drugs task force initiative. In an effort to reduce the time taken to deliver PE halls, as well as reduce the amount spent on design team fees, the Department has developed a generic design for PE halls for post-primary schools. Two of these generic halls have already been completed, two more will be completed by the end of June 2005, with the remaining two expected to go on site during by the end of the year. It is intended that the generic design will speed up the delivery of PE halls and significantly reduce design costs for the delivery of such halls in the future.

All eight of the drugs task force initiative PE halls went on site during 2004 and it is envisaged they will all be completed by August 2005. In addition to these halls, the Department is co-funding the development of a €17 million sports and leisure centre at Le Fanu Park, Ballyfermot, a project headed up by Dublin City Council. In total, €4.25 million will be committed to this project over the next two years. All local schools will be afforded priority access to the facility during school hours. The project is expected to be completed in 2006.

With regard to specific applications for capital grant aid from the schools in question, the progress of these projects will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme from 2005 onwards.