Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 152: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of schools which benefited from the small schools scheme and the amount of funding involved in each of the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6078/08]

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason the details of the small schools scheme 2008 have not been announced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6077/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 152 and 158 together.

Decisions regarding the allocation of funding in respect of the devolved scheme referred to by the Deputy will be taken in due course, in the context of my Department's School Building and Modernisation Programme. The purpose of the Small Schools Scheme is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake building works which will address the school's long term accommodation needs. Under the terms of the Scheme, school authorities are empowered to manage these works with guidance from and minimal interaction with the Department.

Since its introduction in 2003, 400 projects have been approved under the Scheme of which almost 200 have been completed. It is intended the remaining projects should be completed where possible before the end of this year. Around €175m has been approved for the scheme since inception. With so many small projects having been approved over the past few years, I have decided to focus primarily on delivering as many large scale projects as possible in 2008.