Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 April 2004
387 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Education and Science if the offer of financial assistance made to the board of management of a school (details supplied) in County Cork has a precedent in his Department in view of the fact that the funding offered is neither adequate for reconstruction to his Department’s standards or to build a new school. [11598/04]
View answerThe school referred to by the Deputy was listed in section 4 of the 2003 school building programme which was published on my Department's website at www.education.ie. It was planned that this project would be authorised to proceed to construction during 2003 subject to significant cost savings and a review of the enrolment levels later in the year.
The school enrolment had declined significantly in recent years. Accordingly, the Department's schools' inspector visited the school to ascertain the enrolment intake in September 2003. The enrolment at September 2003 had fallen to 25 pupils.
My Department's school building unit operates a devolved schools initiative which allows boards of management to address its own accommodation and building priorities with a guaranteed amount of funding and minimum involvement from my Department.
Under this initiative the amount of the grant varies depending on the pupil enrolment and the size of the school.
