asked the Minister for Education when a new national school will be built in Forsses, County Donegal.

Sketch plans prepared by the school authorities architect for the proposed new national school at Frosses, County Donegal, have been approved, and a grant will be sanctioned towards the cost of the project when agreement has been reached regarding the local contribution to be provided.

At this stage of planning it is not possible to say when building will commence.

Deputy Coughlan has asked me to convey his apologies and to put a question to the Minister on his behalf. How much would the local contribution amount to and what is the projected time for the commencement of the building?

It is not the practice to disclose the amount of the contribution because it is a matter between the officials of my Department and the chairman of the board of management. This has been the practice for as long as I am aware and therefore I cannot disclose what the local contribution would be. In any event, it is negotiable. Assuming early agreement on the local contribution, the further stages of planning would be the preparation of working drawings and final contract documentation. This is likely to occupy the balance of the current year. Then there is the question of putting it to tender.

Do I understand the Minister is talking about a timetable of mid-1984?

I do not want to give a specific date because it will depend upon a number of other agencies such as the Office of Public Works and the local board of management. I have given an indication of the stages which must be gone through before the project goes to contract and it would be foolish to give a specific date. When it goes to contract it is for the board of management and the contractor to decide when work will commence.

How can it depend on the Office of Public Works when the Minister for Education announced some time ago that the building section concerned with national schools was being transferred from the Office of Public Works to the Department of Education?

I would regard that as a separate question but the Minister did make that announcement. Negotiations are going on between the Department and the Office of Public Works to bring about a position where total responsibility for primary school building would rest within the Department of Education.

Is the Minister of State saying that the Minister announced the change before the details of the transfer had been worked out within the Departments?

That is a separate question. I want to make the position clear. The question Deputy Molloy is asking is only relevant, if at all, in so far as it concerns the question on the Order Paper. Deputy Molloy is raising a general matter not covered by the question.

I am raising the reasons given for the delay in proceeding with the construction of the new national school in Frosses. It was the school of the late Deputy Clem Coughlan and I know it very well. I know its dreadful condition and the need for a new school.

You cannot make a speech on it.

If the Minister is saying that the delay is caused partly by the Office of Public Works, surely the Minister's announcement some months ago has a role to play.

That is a separate question. It is argument.

The local contribution has not been agreed by the chairman of the board of management. Once this is agreed we can proceed to the next stage.