Mr O’Keeffe said he wants to be as open and clear about building projects as possible and he has told officials to put all the relevant information on the department website when it is updated before the end of the year.

The Minister was responding to a request from Fine Gael spokesman Brian Hayes that he would revert to the transparent system operated by former minister Noel Dempsey, by which schools could check at any time where they stood on the list. 

Minister O'Keeffe's spokesperson said the plan is to publish the list of schools scheduled for works, indicating the prioritisation band into which they fall and what stage they are at in the system.

The minister said that while his €581m school building budget for 2009 is €5m less than last year, he expects to get more work done with that money as many tenders are coming in around 15% cheaper than similar projects a year ago.

Meanwhile, the National Alliance for Primary Education, comprising groups representing teachers, parents, school management bodies and principals, urged Mr O’Keeffe to sit down with them and discuss how efficiencies can be made to reduce the impact of education cutbacks on children.

National Parents Council-Primary chief executive Áine Lynch said a lot of attention had been placed on the interests of teachers in the education debate last week but that all stakeholders were equally concerned about the cuts.

“Everybody is happy to look for efficiencies in the education system and different people have different areas they would like to see them in,” she said.

Mr O’Keeffe said he hoped to meet with INTO, second level managers and other management bodies in the next few weeks to discuss the impacts of the changes. (Source: Irish Examiner)