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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter which I know is of concern to many Deputies. He is right that there has been a difficult development process for this project. The original decision was devolved to the ETB to run the project. A service level agreement was put in place. A planning application was submitted and granted in April 2014 but that was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by a third party and the board overturned the grant of planning permission. I do not know the background to that but planning difficulties are not unknown in project development.

Following further consultation a new application was lodged and planning permission was received in January 2017. Limerick County Council approached the ETB to ask it to consider an alternative access route to the school site. As part of the planning permission granted access to the school site was to be achieved by upgrading an existing road. The alternative route proposed by the local authority involved the development of a new road off a distributor road, which would open up contiguous lands for development. As the Department had no difficulty in principle with the local authority's proposal it mandated the ETB to make a capped offer of a capital contribution to the cost of the new road, equivalent to what it would cost to upgrade the existing road in accordance with the planning permission granted. Following some period of consideration of the offer by the local authority and correspondence between it and the ETB, the Department's offer was accepted. To facilitate access to the school from the proposed new road the design team had to make some adjustments to the layout of the new school site to place the entrance at a different point in the site.

The ETB and its design team submitted a stage 2B submission for the project incorporating the requisite design changes to the Department towards the end of last year. A stage 2B submission provides a detailed cost plan for the project prior to going to tender. The Department approved this and the project went to tender. When the tender process was completed the ETB filed a tender report with the Department as required and this is being evaluated. Once this evaluation has been completed the project will be allowed to proceed to the award of a contract and construction. I expect that it should happen within the coming weeks. The contract duration will be 17 months.

The tender process is confidential and I am not at liberty, nor is the ETB, to talk about those who have succeeded or not in their tender application. The Department appreciates that the school is anxious to see the project getting to site as soon as possible, particularly after the difficult passage through the planning stages. The construction stage is fast approaching and I look forward to the Department's being able to give the go-ahead for that shortly.

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