Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 444: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount of money spent by her Department under the summer works scheme for the constituency of Cork East between the years 2005 and 2007; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10745/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The amount of funding approved by my Department under the Summer Works Scheme in the Constituency of Cork East is not readily available; these records are not kept on a Constituency basis. However, the following is a breakdown of funding approved for primary and post-primary schools in Cork under the Scheme for the years 2005 to 2007:

2005 €8.51m — 85 schools

2006 €11.569m — 92 schools

2007 €11.476 — 128 schools

As the Deputy may be aware, the Summer Works Scheme was introduced in 2004. Since then, over 3,000 projects in primary and post-primary schools costing in excess of €300 million have been completed. With so many smaller projects having been completed over the past few years, I intend to focus on delivering as many large projects as possible in 2008. The emphasis will be on new schools, extensions and major refurbishments, rather than on smaller projects. There will not, therefore, be a new Summer Works Scheme as part of the building programme this year.