Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 October 2019
203. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) has met all building standard regulations; if there are works outstanding; the remediation or repair work which has had to be carried out or is planned to be carried out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43212/19]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the Department commenced a programme of structural assessments in over 40 schools built by a company in late October last year. At that time, a part of 1 school building was closed, immediate precautionary measures were put in place in 22 schools, with the remaining 17 schools, including Rush and Lusk Educate Together, not requiring immediate precautionary measures pending further detailed investigations. Detailed investigations in the 22 schools with precautionary measures in place took place between January and May 2019. The first phase of the School Remediation Programme for these schools took place during the 2019 summer holiday period with permanent remediation work carried out enabling the removal of precautionary measures in full in 14 schools and preparatory work well advanced to commence structural remediation work in the remaining 8 schools.
Planned detailed investigations in the remaining 17 schools, which includes Rush and Lusk Educate Together, also took place over the Summer months. The engineering advice following those detailed investigations was that some temporary engineering solutions and other precautionary measures should be completed in some parts of some of these buildings until permanent remediation works were designed, programmed and delivered. These works were completed in advance of these schools re-opening for the new school year.
The programme to complete the remediation of all the impacted schools including Rush and Lusk Educate Together is continuing, with the intention to maximise holiday periods.
