An assessment of the general purpose hall and the adjacent classroom block has been carried out at the school referred to by the Deputy. Phase 2 of a large-scale building project at the school, which includes refurbishment of the general purpose hall and adjacent classroom block, is listed in section 6 of the 2003 school building programme which is published on my Department's website at www.education.ie. This project is at stage 4/5 of architectural planning, i.e. pre-tender documents. It has been assigned a ‘band 1' 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.