Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 January 2024
123. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the up-to-date position regarding the development of a training centre of excellence on a site (details supplied) in Killarney, County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2061/24]
View answerI thank the Deputy for raising this question. The Deputy will be aware that Kerry ETB has been working with and supported by SOLAS in developing their preliminary business case proposal for Killarney under the College of the Future Major Projects fund for the last number of months. The development of a robust Preliminary Business Case (PBC) is fundamental to the requirements of the Infrastructure Guidelines (Formerly known as the Public Spending Code guidelines).
This is a really exciting project for Kerry. This is taking a derelict site and re-purposing and transforming it into a state-of-the-art campus. The ambition for the centre is significant. The proposal looks at developing the site into a Specialist Centre of Skills Development in Hospitality Training, while supporting Renewable Energy and Sustainable Green Technologies.
Completed preliminary business cases including that of Kerry ETB were submitted to SOLAS by the deadline of last Friday, the 12th of January. These business cases will shortly begin to be evaluated under criteria such as value for money, affordability and strategic policy and priority alignment, in line with the requirements of the infrastructure guidelines, and ETBs will be informed of the outcome of this evaluation process once it is completed.
Capital investment in the FET Sector remains a key priority for me and for my department and I recognise the importance of developing infrastructure to support the FET sector to provide high quality campuses for our learners and teaching staff.
