Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 298: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the circumstances in which her Department would lease land as a site for a school building; if there are schools built on leased land; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6918/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In general, schools are built on sites that are owned or controlled by school patrons. Alternatively, schools are built on sites that are in the ownership of the Minister for Education, a VEC or the Commissioners for Public Works.

It is not clear whether you are enquiring if my Department would take a lease on land to build a school or if my Department would grant a lease to a third party in order to build a school. I am assuming the former interpretation.

In one case, a school is built on a site that is leased by the Minister for Education on a long-term basis. My Department would (subject to legal advice) consider taking land on a long-term leasehold basis in order to build a school if that were the best option available to procure land for the school in question.