The Minister for Education and Science, Ms Hanafin, has announced details of nearly 122 major school projects at primary and secondary level that will proceed to tender and construction at a cost of nearly €500 million this year.
But Fine Gael, Labour and the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) have expressed concern about the way in which Ms Hanafin has chosen to release information on the programme.
Some 89 primary and 33 post-primary schools around the State are to receive funding for building and modernisation works in the coming year, as part of an allocation of €3.4 billion over the next four years.
The sum of €270 million will be allocated to primary schools and €223 million to post-primary schools. The vast majority of projects will entail refurbishment or redevelopment of existing schools, with a small number leading to the construction of new schools.
"The projects that I am listing today, reaching every county in Ireland, will go to tender and construction on a rolling basis," Ms Hanafin said.
"I am anxious to ensure that there is a continuous flow of projects moving to tender and construction over the next 12 to 15 months.
"While some of the projects will be ready to go on site earlier in the year than others, all of the projects should be capable of commencing construction in that timescale."
However, Fine Gael last night warned that the release of information on the school-building programme risks being turned into "a political and media football" because of the way in which the Government has chosen to announce details of the project.
"Given this Government's appalling record on politicising the schools-building programme it is appropriate to take each successive announcement with a pinch of salt," the party's education spokeswoman, Ms Olwyn Enright, said.
"The current Minister is in danger of, once again, over-extending the commitments made to parents, pupils and teachers when the large majority of increased funding for the building programme is PPP [ public-private partnership] reliant."
Ms Enright added: "I sincerely hope that we are not returning to the 'no bad news' days of Mary Hanafin's colleague in Fianna Fáil, Dr Michael Woods."
The INTO welcomed the announcement of 89 new projects at primary level.
But it said it was concerned a number of schools listed as priorities last year had not moved forward.
"At the same time a number of schools seem to have moved up to the top of a new list of priority projects," Mr John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, said.
"There are a number of possible reasons for this, but it is essential that there is full information in the public domain about how these decisions were taken. We campaigned for transparency in the system and this must not be lost," Mr Carr added.
Ms Jan O'Sullivan, Labour Party spokeswoman on education, accused Ms Hanafin of releasing the information on the new programme "by stealth".
"Minister Hanafin has tampered with the way the school building programme is rolled out. She is releasing information by stealth and is denying many schools the most up-to-date information on their particular project," she said.
"It is extremely regrettable that the number of projects going to tender and construction in this list is one-third fewer than in 2004," Ms O'Sullivan added.