asked the Minister for Education when she proposes to give the go-ahead to enable building to commence of a general purpose room for Bekan primary school, Claremorris, County Mayo.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - County Mayo School.
6.
Due to the pressure on the capital available to my Department for the national schools building programme, I am not in a position to indicate when authorisation may be given for placing a contract for the proposed general purposes room for Bekan national school, County Mayo.
An additional £6.5 million has been provided in the budget, which has been favourably commented upon by the Minister for Finance, for refurbishment and additions. This application has been with the Department of Education since 1971. It was approved in November 1985 and went to tender in June 1987. In view of the fact that the area is an oasis of development would the Minister of State not agree that between now and the end of the year favourable reconsideration should be given to this particular project?
First of all, I would like to say that the £6.5 million relates to both the primary and post primary school building programmes. I am anxious that we proceed with this project. Indeed, I have received numerous representations from Deputy Morley on this question. However, the difficulty at present is that with the scarcity of resources we must have as our priority the provision of classrooms rather than the provision of general purpose rooms.
Deputy Morley has not come into the House to support me on this question. Over the past four years valuable elementary and basic extensions have been provided to both primary and post-primary schools, such as general purpose rooms etc., circumventing and by-passing much of the costly, bureaucratic and excessive red tape. There are quite a number of unemployed tradesmen and small contractors in rural Ireland. Additional consideration should be given to some new device which would enable these projects to go ahead at a far more basic cost and expeditious time factor.
I would agree with Deputy Higgins' sentiments in that respect. It is important to point out that since the Minister and I came into the Department we have succeeded in making very significant cost reductions in the types of buildings which are now being put in place without any serious decrease in the quality. We are continuing to look for every possible method by which we can reduce costs. I agree with the Deputy that the suggestion he has made is a meritorious one and it is one we have examined within the Department. There are some difficulties with such a system but I can assure the Deputy that it is our intention to consider it further if it would mean we can put buildings in place at a lower cost.
Can the Minister of State be more specific? Is it the case that no money is to be provided for this school in 1988 by his Department? Would the Minister of State further agree that the £6.5 million is a pittance and that no effective building is being undertaken by the Department in spite of all the examinations——
That is an extension of this question which refers to a particular school.
Let me ask a specific supplementary then. Is it a fact——
The Deputy is now generalising.
——that no money is going to be provided during 1988 for this school?
It is not true that no money is going to be provided. I cannot say whether or not this project is going to proceed in 1988, but what I can say is that a number of projects will proceed in 1988. With the reduction in costs we are now achieving I hope quite a number of the very worst cases can be dealt with.
Would the Minister of State accept that there are many of the very worst type of cases?
There is no doubt that there are probably 100 schools in the country which are in serious need of repairs. I have admitted that fact since day one. It is sad that that backlog has been allowed to build up. Let me venture to suggest that part of the reason for this is because we have been building schools in recent years at a cost of between £200,000 and £400,000, with classrooms costing in the region of £40,000, and I am at a loss to understand how it cost that amount of money to build specific projects. The idea now is that we go more for buildings of simple design and good quality and try to redress the backlog.