Vol. 532 No. 2
59 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of national schools in each county which have been refurbished and/or reconstructed or extended in each of the past four years; the number still awaiting attention in these categories; the total costs in each of the past four years spent by his Department; and the timescale involved in bringing the total numbers of national schools up to the required acceptable standard. [6854/01]
The information requested by the Deputy is not readily available in my Department. The compilation of this information would involve an inordinate amount of staff time. The general position is that my Department currently has more than 300 major projects in architectural planning. Major projects are those with an estimated value of £250,000 or more. In addition, approximately 900 applications for capital works in pre-architectural planning stages are being processed, including urgent projects in developing areas where there are no existing schools.
As the Deputy will be aware, hugely significant progress has been made by this Government over the past three years in eliminating substandard schools. Should the Deputy require information on any particular projects, officials of my Department will be pleased to provide it.
Since taking office, the Government has invested massively in capital projects for the primary sector. For the year 2000, £81 million was allocated for primary school capital projects. This has been increased to £93 million for the current school year. This compares with only £19.5 million in 1993 and £34 million in 1997. The figure for 1998 was £47.3 million and for 1999 £60.3 million. Under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 an unprecedented £413 million has been set-aside for school infrastructure at primary level.
In addition to these measures, an annual grant is paid to primary schools under the devolved scheme of minor works. The grant is intended to go towards improvements to school buildings and grounds and expenditure of the money is entirely at the discretion of the boards. In the year 2000, £14 million was allocated to this scheme. A similar amount will be allocated for the current school year.
