Vol. 553 No. 6
90 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary schools in respect of which capital funding is currently required to carry out urgently needed refurbishment or extension of facilities; the degree to which the necessary funding is currently available or will be made available to meet such requirements in 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14786/02]
The estimated expenditure on the primary capital programme in 2002 is €172.6 million.
At present my Department has an extensive primary building programme under way. This includes more than 600 projects either in construction, about to go to construction or at various stages of architectural planning.
Decisions on additional projects proceeding to architectural planning and construction are taken in the light of the annual allocation for capital projects, the financial commitments to be met and the priority to be afforded to individual projects. The programme for 2002 was published by my predecessor earlier this year on my Department's website and it will be updated from time to time.
Later this year, when a financial allocation has been made for the primary school building programme in the 2003 Estimates, I will frame a further comprehensive programme. This will be published on the website.
