Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 175: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the schools which are gaelscoileanna or which are multidenominational which have applications with her Department to secure long term accommodation for the school; the duration that has elapsed since the application was first made; and her views on the opinion that her Department's policy for dealing with such cases requires an overhaul. [19399/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy is not readily available. However, I can tell the Deputy that school building projects are selected for inclusion in the School Building and Modernisation Programme on the basis of priority of need using published criteria.

All applications for capital funding are assessed in accordance with these criteria which were drawn up following consultation with the education partners. Following this assessment, each application is assigned a band rating. Progress on individual projects is consistent with that band rating.

This Government is delivering on its commitment to provide modern facilities in schools and has progressively increased funding in recent years. The budget for 2007 is the first year of the rollout of the new NDP which will involve an investment of over €4.5 billion in school infrastructure over the next 7 years. This year alone over €540 million will be spent on school buildings. This will deliver over 1,500 large-scale and smaller scale projects. This, by any standards, is an enormous capital programme.

The availability of multi-annual funding will enable the Department to continue to take a proactive, structured approach to the provision of modern school accommodation.