Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Education and Science, further to her reply to Parliamentary Question No. 102 of 2 October 2007, the progress that has been made in relation to the establishment of the developing areas unit as promised in the programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28480/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has been prioritising developing areas for investment under the School Building and Modernisation Programme. During the period of the last National Development Plan 2000-2006, record levels of investment and the streamlining of delivery systems allowed a major acceleration of the school building programme. Over €2.6 billion was invested in upgrading existing school infrastructure and providing new school accommodation at both first and second-level. This was the largest investment programme in the history of the State and delivered over 7,800 building projects involving tens of thousands of extra permanent school places.

Innovations in the delivery of school buildings such as Generic Repeat Designs and the use of the Design and Build model have been introduced to ensure that new school buildings are delivered in the fastest time-frame possible. Much greater authority has also been devolved to local school management boards to manage and deliver smaller building projects, thereby freeing my Department to concentrate on the larger scale projects. We have also improved forward planning through greater cooperation with Local Authorities and the publication of 10-year Area Development Plans. All of these developments have facilitated the provision of extra school places in extensions and new schools in developing areas all over the country.

The budget for 2007 is the first year of the roll out of the National Development Plan 2007-2013 which will involve an investment of over €4.5 billion in school buildings. This funding will enable my Department to continue to take a proactive approach to the provision of modern school accommodation particularly in developing areas. We are planning for an expected 100,000 additional school places over the lifetime of the Plan. 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.

The Programme for Government includes a commitment to establish a Developing Areas Unit in my Department, dedicated solely to progressing school planning in rapidly developing areas, building on improvements that have already been made in recent years. I should point out that my Department's school planning section has been organised on a geographical basis for some time, with staff dedicated to planning for the needs of counties such as Dublin, Meath and Kildare which include rapidly developing areas. The developing areas unit will consolidate this work. In advance of the full establishment of the unit, some staff have already been redeployed to focus on its priority work, including the need for extra accommodation for September 2008. Discussions are ongoing with the Department of Finance in relation to the additional staffing required to resource this new unit for its longer term work programme.

As part of our strategy for the provision of school places for 2008 and onwards my Department has also initiated a tender process for a drawdown contract facility that will be used to provide additional school places in the rapidly developing areas. This drawdown contract facility is aimed at providing school accommodation in very short timescales using modern methodologies such as off-site construction. Both I and my senior officials have met with the relevant local authorities in relation to the acquisition of suitable sites for new schools and, where possible, pre-empting any planning issues that may arise. This close cooperation with local authorities will help ensure that additional school places are provided in the developing areas within the earliest possible timeframes.