Vol. 577 No. 5
104 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will increase the allocation within his school building programme in 2004 for the advancement of projects listed in section 6 of his Department's list to a realistic figure in view of the large number of school projects which are stalled at this stage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31932/03]
The level of capital funding available for the primary and post-primary school building programme for 2004 amounts to €387 million and in excess of €200 million of this will be targeted at primary school projects. This compares very favourably with the €342.9 million available in 2003.
I have just published details of the 2004 school building programme on my Department's website at www.education.ie. The programme is designed to give the maximum amount of information to managers, boards of management, principals, parents and students and to give assurance that the building programme is being operated in an open and transparent manner.
The programme clarifies the progress to be made on individual projects in 2004. It is evident that substantial inroads will be made in 2004 into projects that have been waiting for funding for some time. An innovative feature of the 2004 programme is the introduction of a new initiative for capital grants for smaller scale improvement works for both primary and post-primary schools which I announced last week. The new initiative, to be known as the summer works scheme, is designed to fund smaller scale works to those schools that are most in need of resources.
