John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 464: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason Educate Together receives no State funding in its role as a registered patron for new schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36701/05]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 465: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason Education Together receives no funding in its role as promoter of new schools; her views on whether Educate Together has provided guidance and training at a considerable bureaucracy to get new schools open in high demand areas and that in the past five years Educate Together has opened more schools than any other body; the reason there has been no assistance from the State for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36702/05]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 466: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on whether the grant of €40,000 in July 2005 from her Department is sufficient to keep Educate Together going until the end of 2005 and that unless Educate Together can secure core State funding in the 2006 budget that it will be forced to start laying off staff and cutting back its services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36703/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 464 to 466, inclusive, together.

The level of funding that my Department provides for Educate Together as a school management body is on a par with that provided for Foras Patrúnachta na Scoileanna Lánghaeilge, the Church of Ireland Board of Education, the Islamic Board of Education and the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education. However, following discussions with Educate Together my Department has provided additional funding for Educate Together in 2005 to meet the immediate issues of concern to that body. The amount provided in 2005 was €81,133. As I indicated in my statement on the publication of the Estimates for 2006, extra funding will be made available to the primary school management bodies, including Educate Together, and I will be in touch with them in the coming weeks about this.

In accordance with the provisions of the Education Act 1998, as Minister, I am obliged to have regard to the need to reflect the diversity of educational services provided in the State. Applying this provision to the development of multi-denominational education at primary level, my Department has supported the establishment of a significant number of new multi-denominational schools in recent years. Of the 24 new schools granted provisional recognition in the past three years alone, 12 are multi-denominational. At post-primary level the requirement for multi-denominational education is met by the State sector through non-designated vocational education committee schools.

To underpin the establishment of new schools, my Department has made a number of changes in recent years which have assisted patron bodies in the provision of accommodation. One of these changes, which was strongly welcomed by the patron body for multi-denominational schools, was the abolition of the local contribution to the building costs for state-owned school buildings, which had cost up to €63,000 per school. Other innovations include the development of the design and build model to provide permanent accommodation much faster, such as in the case of the new multi-denominational school in Griffeen Valley, Lucan, which was designed and built in less than 13 months.

Many multi-denominational primary schools are established in areas of rapidly expanding population growth. School building projects in these areas are assigned a band one rating under the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects. This is the highest band rating possible which results in the delivery of permanent accommodation in the shortest timeframe achievable.

These measures are a strong indication of my Department's commitment to supporting an educational diversity agenda, including multi-denominational education provision. It will continue to do so as part of its own statutory obligations and in the context of the national development plan which is structured to support the development of all educational sectors, regardless of ethos.