Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 91: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will review the funding limits on school building devolved grants in view of the experience of many schools that the amount does not cover the actual cost of the works required and local fund-raising has to make up the balance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19891/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to inform the Deputy that I have increased funding for the schemes this year by an average of 20% for the Permanent Accommodation Scheme and by an average of 10% for the Small Schools Scheme. These increases follow-on from increases of up to 25% in 2005.

Devolving funding to school management authorities allows them to have control of their projects, assists in moving projects more quickly to tender and construction and can also deliver better value for money.

The two Devolved Schemes, the Small Schools Scheme and the Permanent Accommodation Scheme, were originally introduced on a pilot basis in 2003 and due to the positive feedback from schools were extended to cover more schools over the last two years.

The Schemes are not structured on the basis that the Department funding must be supplemented by local fundraising. They do however allow a school to supplement the funding from local resources if they so wish. The critical element is that with devolved authority the school must set the scope of works to match the funding allocated. The Department does not define the precise works to be carried out. A school can make choices within the budget allocated.

Setting the scope of works is the critical first step. Clearly where a school has a known level of resources apart from the Department funding or knows its capacity to raise additional resources it is open to that school to extend the scope of works to include additional facilities. However if the scope of works is not set appropriately from the outset based on the budget available there is a risk that the school will be faced with a funding gap when the project is at construction.

The choices to be made within these devolved schemes rest with the school and that is the cornerstone of any policy of devolution. The school authority knows the budget and must decide what it is capable of building with that budget. The time to identify a problem is at the outset before entering any contract. Schools can raise with my Department any site specific problems or unusual planning stipulations that impose additional costs and these will be examined. Otherwise schools must reduce the scope of intended works so as to remain within budget.

A school does not have to accept the invitation to participate in a devolved scheme and instead be considered for inclusion in the mainstream school building programme in line with the project's priority band rating.

The feedback has in general been very positive, the number of schools participating has increased year on year and many schools are anxious to be included. I order to maintain this momentum; I have invited over 210 additional schools to participate in these schemes in 2006.