Written answers

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Department of Education and Skills

Schools Building Projects

9:00 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 26: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will devolve an annual capital budget to schools this year to allow schools to plan for capital projects. [9849/11]

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Government's Programme for National Recovery 2011-2016 includes a commitment that administrative functions relating to maintenance and school building projects currently carried out by school principals will be devolved locally and that the devolution of an annual capital budget to schools will be piloted to allow schools to plan for capital projects. In order to expedite the process of delivering projects and to maximise the output from within existing resources, my Department has been exploring alternative methods of delivering major projects. As well as the public private partnership method of delivery, my Department has also initiated a process whereby a local authority and a number of VECs have been given responsibility for managing the delivery of major projects. This process has the potential to offer the Department of Education and Skills another mechanism within which school buildings could be delivered in the future. In addition to the major capital projects funded by my Department, there are grant schemes in which responsibility for project managing and overseeing the delivery of these projects within budget is devolved to the school authority. Schemes such as the Summer Works Scheme, the Permanent Accommodation Scheme and the Emergency Works Scheme operate on this basis. The further implementation of the commitments in the Programme for National Recovery 2011-2016 will be informed by progress in the new devolution arrangements under way.

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