Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 October 2017
38. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the widespread dissatisfaction with the progress of many school building projects, including many on a list published in 2014 for construction in 2015 which have not yet commenced, and the slow progress on the subsequently announced six-year capital plan for schools. [45228/17]
View answerThis important question relates to the progress, or lack thereof, of the schools building programme. I started with the list published just before Christmas on 18 December 2014 for schools that were going to construction in 2015. Approximately one third of those schools have not yet started. That is the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response.
I am glad to be able to reply to this question. We have set out the Department's capital investment programme for 2016 to 2021, which details various school projects that are being progressed through the architectural planning process.
We are building more schools and providing more additional school places than ever before. This reflects the priority which the Government is putting on education. We have doubled the number of school places being provided from 8,900 in 2010 to 18,000 in 2017. We have also increased the number of school completions from 25 in 2010 to 50 in 2016, with an expected 46 schools this year.
In 2017, more than 80% of the capital allocation in respect of the school sector will be expended on the delivery of large scale projects and the additional accommodation scheme. It is expected that this expenditure level will be maintained in 2018. Since 2011, 170 new schools have been built, with 120 major projects. They represent more than 100,000 school places.
In the case of the school projects announced from within the multi-annual programme for 2015, 64 school projects have either been completed, are on site or are in advanced architectural planning. The remaining six school projects announced for 2015 have not advanced as the Department expected due to difficulties with acquiring sites and issues arising in the planning process. The Department is in ongoing liaison directly with each of these schools with regard to the ongoing progression of their projects into the architectural and planning process.
These issues are, in the vast majority of cases, completely outside the Department’s control. The Department seeks to progress all school building projects to completion as soon as possible and works towards this objective in all cases.
Following the capital review, additional capital funding of €332 million will be available to the schools sector, primarily from 2019 onwards, boosting investment in our primary and post-primary schools infrastructure.
The Minister is trying but failing to spin the situation by mixing up architectural planning with construction. He knows that building is different from planning. What was promised in 2014 was not that the schools on that list would go to architectural planning but would go to construction, that is, that building would start. Approximately 26 schools were promised they would go to construction in 2015 but that have not been started yet. It is a nonsense to say they are in architectural planning because the assumption was that they were well planned in 2014 when the Department and the Minister's predecessor announced they would be built commencing in 2015.
The Minister has also muddied the waters in respect of the capital plan from election year 2015 to 2021. That is another project in the realm of fantasy. There has not been a word about several schools such as the Mercy convent in Navan or Ard Rí community national school. What does the Minister have against special schools? Special schools around the country seem to be falling well behind, including St. Mary's and St. Ultan's in Navan, St. Ita's in Drogheda, a school in Enniscorthy and several in Stillorgan in south County Dublin, adjoining the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor. They have been left by the wayside. The Minister is mixing up the idea of building which the Government committed to. Does the Minister have enough money to build the projects the Department has already committed to building?
The way we plan is to have several school projects at different stages in the architectural planning phases from the initiation, design, detailed architectural drawings, approval, evaluation, tender and on into construction. That is a pipeline and the Department works to the best of its ability to keep them all moving. We use every cent we get. We have drawn down an additional €100 million because of the quality of our planning and capacity to deliver. That does not mean that every school that wants a building will have it built the moment it wishes for it. There is a planning process.
We are put to the pin of our collar to meet the demographic growth, 80% of our money is going to build 18,000 new places, most of which are entirely new. There is expansion. We are meeting the demographic challenge of providing well over 100,000 additional school places. We are delivering those.
I fully recognise that in the case of announcements made about 70 projects which it was hoped would go to construction, that did not prove possible. They may have been over-optimistic as to whether they could be delivered in the time available. I can, however, show that the money devoted is delivering more and more school places every year. They are expanding the number we deliver and we are drawing down an additional €300 million in the new capital allocation to maintain that progress. It is putting a strain on funding to meet what we are very fortunate to have, a demographic bulge in our school population.
The question is not whether the Minister is facing the various challenges he has listed but whether he is facing the challenge the Department set itself by saying that these projects would go to construction in certain years and that has not happened in many cases. This is a fantasy list and it dates back three years. The pre-election capital plan is in the realms of even greater fantasy because very few of those projects have been built. Does the Minister have enough money to build what he said he would build? I did not ask whether he is meeting the demand or facing the challenges. We know and accept that. Does he have enough money? Is he going to his Cabinet colleagues and the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform to ask for the money? I suspect that if the Department's building unit were a private company he would be seeking an examinership procedure because he has entered into so many commitments for which it does not have the money. The Department's commitment to building these schools in a particular year has not been complied with. The Minister needs to go back to the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, to ask for a substantial increase in funding.
I was not in this office in 2014 and cannot say why these projects were put on the construction list but every one of them is being progressed. The Deputy can see that in my reply. As he rightly says, some are at an earlier stage than would have been expected when they were put on the list in 2014. The reason for that is often planning or site difficulties. They were not due to an unwillingness to progress these projects. There is never an occasion in the Department of Education and Skills when money is returned to the Department of Finance. Most Departments return money at the end of the year unspent because they do not have a supply chain like our pipeline that ensures the money and projects are delivered. We can stand over the quality and numbers of our buildings. We are meeting the demographic trend. Of course there are people who would like to see it happen faster.
