To ask the Minister of Education for an update on his discussions with the Secretary of State in relation to allowing the allocation of Fresh Start Agreement money for the maintenance of schools.

The first tranche of Fresh Start funding, announced in March 16, is for the provision of new schools in the shared and integrated education sectors. My most recent discussions with the Secretary of State have been in relation to maximising the impact of the funding going forward.

There are no proposals to apply Fresh Start funding to school maintenance activities. Maintenance is funded from the resource budget; the Fresh Start funding available is in the form of capital and would not therefore be applicable to maintenance activities.

Maintenance of schools in the Controlled, Voluntary Maintained and Irish Medium sectors is the responsibility of the Education Authority (EA), while maintenance of schools in the Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained Integrated (GMI) sectors is the direct responsibility of the schools themselves.