Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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227. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied) has fallen off his Department's list for funding and when funding will be made available to bring this project to the final stage. [20559/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The building project referred to by the Deputy is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. All statutory approvals have been obtained and the Stage 2b submission was recently approved by the Department.

However, on 1st January 2016 there were 66 major projects under construction. Since the start of this year 14 more major projects have been progressed to construction and there are currently 36 projects authorised to progress through the tender process with a view to starting on site in the coming months. That represents a total of 116 major projects either under construction or progressing to commence construction in 2016. The project for the school referred to was not at a sufficiently advanced stage to be considered for inclusion with those projects when they were authorised to proceed to tender earlier this year. These projects were authorised to proceed under previous Minister O'Sullivan, and this means that the existing contractual commitments for 2016 now fully account for the funding which was allocated for 2016 by the previous Minister.

My officials will continue to closely monitor expenditure on existing contractual commitments over the coming months and, as funding allows, other projects, including the project for the school in question will be considered for progression through the tender process with a view to starting on site as soon as possible.