Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 227: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the policies in place in 1997 regarding the financial contributions required of schools in relation to the purchase of sites and commissioning of capital works; and the nature and date of all significant changes to these policies since that point. [9412/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Prior to 1999 a local contribution of 15% for primary schools and 10% for post-primary schools was sought for projects built on land not owned by the State. In 1999 the then Government announced a significant change in the way local contribution was levied, introduced a ceiling on the local contribution and reduced the percentage to be paid locally on school capital projects. The maximum level of local contribution for new schools was €63,000 or €12,500 in the case of special schools or DEIS designated disadvantaged schools. In the case of refurbishments or extensions to existing school buildings the maximum local contribution was €31,500 or €12,500 in the in the case of special schools or DEIS designated disadvantaged schools.

In recent years, a number of measures were taken to reduce further the local contribution burden, these were: - No local contributions were sought for special education projects in mainstream schools, even where the land was not owned by the State. - No local contributions were sought for projects delivered under the Small Schools Scheme or Permanent Accommodation Scheme, a single all inclusive grant was paid under these schemes. - A rolling five year period was used to reduce local contributions for Summer Works Scheme projects.

In October 2010 the previous Government approved the discontinuation of the policy of seeking a Local Contribution for all new primary and post-primary projects commencing construction and the rental of temporary accommodation.