Schools Building Projects.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 September 2006

Wednesday, 27 September 2006

Questions (1229)

Paul Kehoe

Question:

1296 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary schools here that were sanctioned by her Department to proceed to tender and construction stage in the building programme in the past two years; the amount of money spent by her Department on same; the budget allocated for such works; the number of the above schools which are being constructed; the reasons for the delay with the other schools that have not started to be constructed; and the breakdown of the figures. [28981/06]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Science (Ms Hanafin)

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that my Department is delivering a record school building programme which, since 2005, involved giving approval to proceed to tender and construction of over 1,450 building projects in primary schools throughout the country.

In recent years my Department has streamlined the delivery process for school building projects so as to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that projects can be delivered on a devolved basis without the need for major interaction with my Department. This approach gives school authorities a much greater degree of control over the timescale for the delivery of their projects.

These projects are all funded from my Department's 5 year multi-annual capital envelope which currently amounts to a total of €3.9 billion.