Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 211: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on whether the promised investment of €4.5 billion in providing new schools and improving existing ones will be sufficient to meet the anticipated demand of 100,000 additional school places; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22037/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am confident that the funding of €4.5 billion to be provided under the new National Development Plan (NDP) for investment in school building infrastructure will be adequate to meet my Department's needs over the lifetime of the Plan. This will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State and will enable my Department to ensure that school places are available where needed as well as continuing to upgrade existing school facilities. This investment will allow my Department to continue the acceleration of the school building programme which commenced during the lifetime of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested on school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

The budget for 2007 is the first year of the rollout of the new NDP. This funding will enable my Department to continue to take a proactive approach to the provision of modern school accommodation particularly in developing areas. This year alone around over €540 million will be spent on school building infrastructure with over 1,500 projects on my Department's school building programme. Construction in 2007 alone will deliver over 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for over 17,500 pupils, mainly in developing areas.

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. 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. My Department has also improved forward planning through greater cooperation between the Department of Education and Local Authorities and the publication of 10-year Area Development Plans.

The main focus of the school building programme is to deliver additional capacity in the rapidly developing areas. It is projected that 100,000 additional school places will be required over the next number of years. I am conscious of the need to provide more school places quickly and these are being delivered.