Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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155. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details in tabular form by county since 2011 of the number of requests her Department's planning and building unit has received from schools to deal with asbestos related problems; the number of those schools that have had their issue successfully resolved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44445/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Details of Emergency Works applications requesting funding for the removal of asbestos from Primary and Post Primary, together with the outcome of these applications, is outlined in the attached table. Applications prior to the 1st January 2013 were dealt with by the Office of Public Works on behalf of my Department under the Asbestos Remediation programme.

In addition to the above when a school authority receives funding from my Department to carry out refurbishment works to their school building, they are advised of their responsibilities as Client for the project under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Safety Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations, Statutory Instrument (S.I.) 504 of 2006.

In particular school authorities are advised that they must receive written confirmation from all Consultant(s) appointed by them to assist with the delivery of their approved project that they are aware of the contents of the School's Safety File and the School's Asbestos Register. As a result most asbestos related requests for funding are received as a result of asbestos-containing materials being highlighted as part of an already approved project and additional funding is provided as part of the overall project cost and this information is not centrally held within my Department.

Requests received for Asbestos Removal under the Departments Emergency Works Scheme since 1 January 2013