Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her plans to accelerate the school building programme with a view to meeting accommodation needs on time, at both primary and second level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40177/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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This Government has accelerated the school building programme with record levels of investment and the streamlining of delivery systems. School building projects are prioritised in accordance with published criteria and those in rapidly developing areas are assigned the highest priority.

Innovations in the delivery of school buildings such as Generic Repeat Designs and the use of the Design and Build model ensure that new school buildings are delivered in the fastest time-frame possible. In recent years, my Department has also adopted a policy of devolving much greater authority to local school management boards to manage and deliver smaller building projects, thereby freeing my Department to concentrate on the larger scale projects. To put it in context in terms of pupil numbers, if we take new primary schools recently completed, under construction or approved to progress to construction, we are delivering over 15,000 new permanent pupil places, almost 70% of these in the Leinster area. This figure relates to new schools only and does not include an additional 8,750 school places being delivered under the permanent accommodation scheme.

This Government is determined to ensure that every child is educated in a suitable and comfortable environment. Since 1997, great advances have been made in transforming school accommodation throughout the country, through an investment of €3 billion. This has funded over 7,800 individual school projects in the last seven years alone.

While the challenge before us in reversing decades of under-investment in school buildings and in responding to emerging needs in new population areas is great, nonetheless we are making huge progress in upgrading existing school infrastructure and providing new school accommodation at both first and second level.

The demand for additional accommodation in schools has risen significantly over the last number of years mainly due to the rapid expansion in teacher numbers particularly in the area of special needs, the growth in the school-going population in rapidly developing areas and the demands to cater for diversity through the recognition of new Gaelscoileanna and Educate Together schools.

This year alone, over €500 million is being invested in schools infrastructure and this is funding the delivery of over 1,300 building projects. This compares with just over €90 million provided for school buildings in 1997.

Under the 2006 Budget, €3.9 billion is being provided over the five years 2006-2010 for capital projects at all levels of the education sector from primary to third level. This is proof of this Government's continuing commitment to educational infrastructure and will allow my Department to continue to take a pro-active approach in meeting school accommodation needs throughout the country.