Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 July 2016
207. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary school projects at stage 2B and the number of these which will commence as previously planned for 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19510/16]
View answerThere are 29 primary school building projects on the 2016 Construction Programme announced in November 2015 which are currently at stage 2B of the architectural planning process. The school authorities on three of those primary school projects have recently been informed of delays in progressing their projects to tender and construction stage. The other 26 projects are currently progressing to the completion of stage 2(b).
However, as the Deputy will be aware, on 1st January 2016 there were 66 major projects under construction and since the start of this year 14 more major projects have been progressed to construction and there are currently 36 projects authorised to progress through the tender process with a view to starting on site in the coming months. That represents a total of 116 major projects either under construction or progressing to commence construction in 2016. These projects were authorised to proceed under previous Minister O'Sullivan, and this means that the existing contractual commitments for 2016 now fully account for the funding which was allocated for 2016 by the previous Minister.
My officials will continue to closely monitor expenditure on existing contractual commitments over the coming months and as funding allows, other projects, including the projects referred to, will be considered for progression through the tender process with a view to starting on site as soon as possible.
