Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 62: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of schools now listed on her Department's school building programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10779/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There are over 1,500 large-scale and smaller scale projects on my Department's school building programme. The rolling series of announcements on the programme are listed on my Department's website — the most recent of which involved over 1,100 projects under the Summer Works Scheme, 256 projects under the devolved schemes and 22 large-scale post-primary projects.

The budget for 2007 is the first year of the roll out of the new NDP which will involve an investment of over €4.5 billion in school buildings infrastructure over the next 7 years. This year around over €540 million will be spent on school buildings. This multi-annual funding will enable my Department to continue to take a proactive approach to the provision of modern school accommodation particularly in the rapidly developing areas.