Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 601: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the findings of an inspection at a school (details supplied) in Dublin 20 by the Health and Safety Authority. [39260/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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An inspection at the school referred to by the Deputy was carried out by the Health and Safety Authority. The notification for the school was sent to the Chair of the Board of Management of the school and a copy was received by my Department.

The report states that the School's Health and Safety Statement of 1999 is out of date and needs to be revised by the Board of Management. As the Deputy will be aware, individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care. In this regard, in accordance with the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work, Act 1989, it is the responsibility of school management authorities to have a safety statement in place in their schools. Schools are obliged to identify possible hazards, assess the risks to health and safety and to put appropriate safeguards in place.

Otherwise, the findings in the Report are that some remedial works should be carried out with little or no expense such as the fitting of a handrail at the stairs to the boiler room, cleaning of the tank room floor and removal of cleaners' items and cardboard boxes. These are all maintenance issues which should be dealt with, as a matter of routine, by the Board of Management.

The notification also identifies the oil storage system and possible damping of electrical equipment as areas needing attention.

Provision is built into the School Building Programme to enable schools to address urgent health and safety problems. Primary schools are given an annual allocation, currently amounting to €5,500 plus €18.50 per pupil under the grant scheme for minor works which can be used entirely at the discretion of school management to address basic health and safety issues relating to school infrastructure and of the nature of those recommended for remediation in the Health and Safety Authority notification for the school in question.

In addition, the Summer Works Scheme was introduced during 2004. This Scheme provides capital grants for improvement works at primary and post-primary schools. Since it was introduced over 3,000 projects, costing in excess of €300 million have been completed. While it was not possible to have a Summer Works Scheme in 2008, there will be a Scheme in 2009.

My Department also sets aside a contingency sum each year to deal with emergency works in primary and post-primary schools, including health and safety works.

In addition, urgently required health and safety works relating to asbestos removal, radon mitigation or dust extraction may be grant-aided under the remediation programmes operated by the Planning and Building Unit of my Department.

A large scale extension and refurbishment project for the school in question is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. This project will proceed when the requisite funding is available and commensurate with the priority attaching to the project under the published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects.