Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2013
126. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether the suspension of the minor works grant represents a false saving in view of comments (details supplied) that schools that are unable to afford to meet the cost of minor maintenance costs will result in school buildings falling into a much greater state of disrepair. [3085/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraWhen the minor works grant last issued in November 2011 for the school year 2011-12, I stated that, given the need to focus on meeting the demand for additional school places, it was unlikely that funding would be available for the minor works grant in the coming years. This is borne out by the fact that, in 2012, some 85% of the capital expenditure in the school sector was in respect of large scale projects, additional accommodation and prefab replacement. The balance was expended on site acquisition, emergency works, furniture and equipment provision and commitments arising from earlier years. Minor works grants have issued to primary schools since 1997, enabling significant investment in maintenance works across the entire school infrastructure over that period. While the focus of resources needs to be on providing additional school places, an emergency works fund continues in place to address emergencies that arise in schools. A sum of €10 million is set aside annually for such emergencies.
Does the Minister agree minor works grants were used by schools, particularly older schools, to continually upgrade classrooms and infrastructure and, as a result, they were able to maintain the school estate? This decision could mean that in the long term, because schools will be unable to do continual maintenance and upgrading, further pressure will be put on the capital budget for school building replacement and so on. While the Minister will probably save money in the short term, this could potentially cost the public in the longer term. Has he carried out a review of when he proposes to reintroduce the grant or has it been abolished completely? Will it be dependent on finances from year to year? This will affect smaller rural schools, in particular. Apart from maintaining the school estate, the grants also provided valuable employment and business locally and we should not forget that. Every grant to a school is spent in the local community by local providers carrying out the work and that has a knock-on effect.
I regret I had to make the choice between ensuring net additional accommodation was available for the increasing number of young people who continue to be born in this country and the maintenance of older schools in need of repair. The old saying, "A stitch in time saves nine", comes immediately to mind. Early intervention in many cases will reduce or remove the need for more substantial repairs down the road. I hope to return to the minor works scheme, which provides approximately €5,400 per primary school, if resources allow but, as I have said repeatedly, if I have to choose between a child looking into a field or a playground, I have to make the choice in favour of the playground and new school. That means with limited resources I cannot do what was good practice in the past, but I would like to return to that as soon as resources permit.
The Minister mentioned the emergency fund of €10 million. Given that we no longer have the minor works grant, is the Minister expecting an upsurge in the number of applications for the emergency fund? Is the Minister satisfied that the fund, which he put in place, will be adequate to deal with that upsurge?
I take it that the Deputy is referring to the emergency fund of €10 million. An emergency has to be an emergency in the first instance. A case was reported in the newspapers before Christmas of a school that was not properly heated because the principal did not have the money for repairs. The school in question had not applied for any kind of grant for the heating system. When I heard the story, I made inquiries myself. No application had been received from the school in relation to the heating problem.
An emergency is, literally, an emergency. It occurs when something goes wrong. In those circumstances I have no reason to believe €10 million is an inadequate sum. If an emergency arises and the fund has been exhausted, we will find the money in some way, but we are constrained.
