Vol. 571 No. 3
151 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Education and Science his plans to deal with the serious lack of facilities and space in the two teacher primary school at Drumacrutten, County Monaghan; his views on whether it is unacceptable for remedial teaching to be carried out in the toilet area as a health and safety issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21740/03]
The large-scale building project for Drumacruttin national school is listed in section 7 of the 2003 school building programme which is published on my Department's website at www.education.ie. This project is at stage 3 of architectural planning (developed sketch scheme). It has been assigned a band 2 rating by my Department in accordance with the published criteria for prioritising large-scale projects. Projects listed in sections 6 and 7 will not be authorised to progress beyond their current stage of architectural planning at this time.
Budgetary provisions in 2004 and subsequent years will determine the rate of progression to tender and construction of these projects in conjunction with the band rating individually assigned. In the meantime, individual schools should, as appropriate, use their devolved grant to deal with any urgent health and safety works.
152 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has satisfied himself with the progress being made by the 20 pilot schemes he introduced for dealing with the restructuring of primary schools; if he intends expanding this scheme now or in the programme for 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21741/03]
The devolved building initiative for small rural primary schools is an innovative feature of this year's programme. Twenty school communities are benefiting from this pilot initiative. The feedback from schools on this initiative is very positive and most of the 20 schools will have commenced construction works before the end of this year. I hope to build on this initiative in future years.
