Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Briefing on Current and Future Plans for the School Building Unit: Department of Education

Mr. Hubert Loftus:

Typically, our project management supports are there for the more complex projects, and they may be projects on very constrained sites which are difficult and require considerable phasing, or large-scale projects. We would have a project management company or team to support that process. The Senator mentioned the Ballinasloe project and its long history. Elements of that, if one looks back, could have been done better. Other elements were issues that arose through that period with regard to access routes to the school and engagement with the local authority. In hindsight, if we had known all of that earlier, we might have done some things differently. It is through the planning process currently. We will have to await the outcome of that to work that through.

The Senator also mentioned frameworks and Brexit. We have procurement frameworks in place for delivering on modular accommodation. When we were putting that framework in place, we would have been conscious of the potential impacts of Brexit and working that through in order that we were essentially future-proofing it from a Brexit perspective.

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