Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 307: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she has issued approval of contract documents in respect of the proposed new school at Ardclough, County Kildare; the timescale for the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6017/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Draft contract documents have issued to the Office of Public Works. This documentation is now being examined by the Office of the Chief State Solicitor.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 308: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the appointment of a design team for a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6018/06]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 310: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position in regard to the appointment of a design team in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6020/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 308 and 310 together.

The schools to which the Deputy refers were included in my recent announcement of 62 large scale building projects which have been approved to progress under the school building and modernisation programme. These will be progressed by way of the appointment of a design team under the Department's capital programme for 2006.

The building section of the Department of Education and Science will shortly provide information to the schools concerned on how their projects will be advanced on foot of this announcement.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 309: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the appointment of a design team for a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6019/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers is one of those which, as I announced in January, would commence planning for a new school building with immediate effect.

The first key step in this process is the appointment of a suitably qualified design team. At an information seminar held recently in Tullamore by the school building section of the Department of Education and Science, the mechanics of appointing design teams and planning for the building of a school were explained to representatives from all 62 schools listed in my January announcement. As some of the schools will be responsible for appointing and delivering their own building project, this seminar was of crucial importance to them.

It is intended that a large percentage of these schools will be built using innovative methods such as standardised design model or design and build process, which have been successfully introduced by the Department of Education and Science in recent years. Officials in the school building section are currently assessing each project with a view to assigning each an appropriate build and procurement method and in the coming weeks the roll out of advertisements seeking design team consultants for the projects will begin.