Vol. 555 No. 2
237 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Education and Science the stage an application for building works at a school (details supplied) in County Wexford is at; when the building will commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18375/02]
My Department is awaiting a revised stage four submission – detail design – from the management authority of the school in question. When this submission has been approved, the question of proceeding to tender will be considered.
238 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Education and Science the stage the building and upgrading of a school (details supplied) in County Wexford is at; and if his attention has been drawn to the condition of this school and to the fact that this school was to be brought up to standard by the end of 2002. [18376/02]
In recent years, my Department has grant-aided a substantial amount of work at the school referred to by the Deputy. The general position is that my Department has an extensive primary school building programme under way at present and this includes a large number of projects at various stages of architectural planning, details of which are available on my Department's website at www.education.ie.
Decisions on additional projects proceeding to architectural planning are taken in the light of the annual allocation for capital projects, the financial commitments to be met and the priority to be afforded to individual projects. The programme for 2002 is in place and the schools concerned have been notified.
Later this year when a financial allocation has been made for the primary school building programme in the 2003 Estimates I will be framing a further comprehensive programme of works and this will involve putting more projects into architectural planning. The needs of the school in question will be considered at that time.
In the meantime, the school's board of management should ensure that essential health and safety issues at the school are attended to. They should therefore continue to use the devolved grant for minor works and if the cost of any works of an emergency nature exceeds the amount available under the devolved grant, they may apply to my Department's building unit for grant aid.
