The criteria used for prioritising large-scale primary and post-primary school building projects is set out in appendix 1 and 2 of the 2004 school building programme which is published on my Department's website www.education.ie.
As I announced when publishing the programme, a key strategy for school building projects going forward will be grounded on the budget day announcement of multi-annual allocations for capital investment in education projects. All projects that are not going to construction as part of the 2004 school building programme will be re-evaluated with a view to including them as part of a multi-annual building programme from 2005 onwards. This strategy will provide better clarity for schools in terms of when they can expect their projects to proceed.
As the first step in the review process, my Department is currently holding consultations with the education partners in relation to the prioritisation criteria used for large scale building projects. The purpose of these consultations is to ensure that the criteria has optimum precision and are fully tuned to meeting the priority accommodation needs of the primary and post primary sectors. I expect to be in a position to make a further announcement in this matter later this year.