Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that there have been a number of delays, through no fault of anyone. The project to provide an extension to Lucan community college commenced design in June 2011. The design team reached completion of stage 1 of architectural planning in April 2013. The stage 1 report suggested that extensive refurbishment works to the existing school would also be required. My Department approved a significantly increased scope of works to incorporate those refurbishment works. The increased scope and value of the project lead to a request for a substantial increase in design team fees.

EU regulations limiting contract increases to 50% required a tender exercise for the appointment of a new design team. The ETB tendered for and appointed a new design team in October 2014. The new design team brought the project through stage 2A, which is the detailed design stage. Following the stage 2A stakeholders' meeting on 30 November 2016, the ETB and its design team were requested to submit a stage 2A addendum to address issues in the detailed design. This addendum was submitted by the ETB on 22 December 2016 and is currently under review. Once this review is complete the project will then progress to complete stage 2B which includes the application for statutory approvals and the preparation of tender documents for contractors.

Any timeframe for the further progression of the project through the tender and construction stages will necessarily be dependent on the timeframe for the ETB and its design team successfully completing stage 2B. That stage involves planning permission, disabled access and fire certificates etc.

I assure the Deputy that once stage 2B is complete my Department will do everything it can to ensure the tender and construction stages are expedited.

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