Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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88. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) will be granted funding to allow it to build a new school gym in view of the fact its facilities are badly in need of replacement. [24074/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that my Department received an application from the school in question for significant capital funding to construct a replacement PE Hall and classroom accommodation.  As my Department's priority is the provision of essential classroom accommodation to meet demographic need, the element of the school's application relating to classroom accommodation was therefore prioritised for consideration. In this regard, my Department has approved funding to the school to construct 2 mainstream classrooms and a woodwork room. This building project has been devolved to the school authority for delivery.

Under the National Development Plan (NDP), increased funding has been provided for the school sector capital investment programme.  This funding allows for a continued focus on the provision of new permanent school places to keep pace with demographic demand and also provides for an additional focus on the refurbishment of existing school buildings to include the building and modernisation of PE facilities in post-primary schools.

Under the Ireland Project 2040, we will invest €8.4 billion (compared to €4.9 billion in the previous decade) in primary and post primary school buildings. This will include the provision of 50 large scale school building projects and 20,000 school places in state of the art new buildings.

The immediate priority of my Department is providing 20,000 new and replacement school places each year, to ensure that every child has a school place. The government will focus in the medium term on the provision of PE facilities in schools.