Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
519. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Education further to the recent approval of an additional classroom for a school (details supplied) in County Kerry when the supplementary funding for the additional works will be approved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14878/24]
View answerThe school to which the Deputy refers was approved a project under my Department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme for the provision of one mainstream classroom, one staff room and the conversion of an existing staff room into a special educational tuition room.
The responsibility for delivering the project has been devolved to the school authority and they have recently submitted the stage 2b architectural report (pre-tender report) for review by officials in my Department.
My Department has a strong track record of delivery of school building projects involving circa. 300 projects currently at construction including 34 new school buildings and over 800 projects completed since 2020 notwithstanding the wider construction sector environment of high inflation, labour shortages and supply chain issues. We continue to have a strong pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme. My Department has an overall pipeline of some 1300 projects across the school system. The current status of all projects is listed on a county by county basis at www.gov.ie and this is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction. Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing over €5 billion during the period 2021 to 2025, to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities across the country for the almost one million students and over 100,000 staff that learn and work in our schools every day.
Last year, my Department received supplementary funding to help alleviate funding pressures which was reflective of my Department’s strong delivery of school building projects particularly to support mainstream provision accommodating Ukrainian students and special education needs provision. My Department also have a large modular accommodation programme delivering urgently needed school places. The Department has always operated a tightly prioritised approach to the school building programme, focused over recent years on the delivery of additional capacity where required, and this will continue to be the case. My Department is committed to ensuring appropriate accommodation is available for the pupils in the school referred to by the Deputy and will in the wider context outlined, ensure that this project - as for all projects on our school building programme - is subject to the due diligence required under the public Infrastructure Guidelines. It is a challenging construction environment across all sectors (Education, Housing, Transport etc.) and my Department is also required to manage the timing, scope and cost of individual projects to remain within budgetary parameters for the overall programme – this involves constant review throughout the project lifecycle.
