Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Apr 2003

Vol. 564 No. 1

Written Answers - Schools Refurbishment.

Michael Noonan

Question:

200 Mr. Noonan asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the condition of a school (details supplied) in County Limerick; if his attention has further been drawn to the commitments made in the past two years by officials of his Department that a refurbishment programme will be carried out as a matter of urgency; if he will visit the school when he is visiting Limerick on 7 April 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8945/03]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

The 2003 capital programme has been published and full details in relation to individual projects are available on my Department's website at www.education.ie. The project to which the Deputy refers is at an early stage of architectural planning, namely, the pre-planning permission stage. In view of the scale of the capital programme and having regard to the level of finan cial commitments to be met from projects already in construction, my Department does not envisage that it will be in a position during this year to allow architectural planning for further large-scale projects to progress beyond their current authorised stages.

In light of this approach to the schools capital programme, it would be unfair to other schools for me to become involved in discussions on individual projects as this might create the impression that decisions were going to be taken on building projects on the basis of criteria other than the objective criteria published by my Department.