Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 487: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress to date in proposed building of a school (details supplied) in County Louth; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30739/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, all applications for large scale capital funding are assessed against published prioritisation criteria and assigned a Band rating. Progress on individual projects is then considered in the context of the multiannual School Building and Modernisation Programme consistent with the assigned Band rating. This is the case for the project in question.

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 the Departments needs over the lifetime of the Plan. This will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State and it will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where needed as well as continuing to upgrade existing school facilities. This investment will allow the 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.