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

I thank the Deputy. I had some interest from the other side of the counter on this question when I was in the Department of Education and Skills.

The most recent report on public buildings shows that schools are one sector where the greatest ground has to be made up. Schools are well short of the targets that are generally being achieved. To be fair, the targets are being achieved in higher education rather well but not in schools. We all know the reason for that. They do not have access to resources and so on.

However, two points are really positive. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has been working with schools. There is a €14 million investment plan for the end of 2019. The idea is to test approaches and build best practice and building capacity for an energy refit programme for larger-scale schools. A total of 16 schools have been upgraded to date and more are planned for 2019. The Department of Education and Skills is exploring how the programme could be further scaled up.

Energy measures delivered include improving the energy efficiency of the building fabric, installing more efficient and cleaner heating systems and upgrading to smarter electrical systems. Outcomes are positive, improving the energy performance of the schools by as much as 40% in some cases as well as improving the teaching and learning environment for staff and students.

The community initiative that the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, referred to is, in many cases, improving schools. There have been some private sector initiatives that have worked with schools with outstanding results as well.

Another positive point is that the Department of Education and Skills has committed in its ten year financial envelope to deep energy refit for its pre-2008 school body. There is momentum within the Department. I hope that by combining the successful pilots that are up-and-running in many parts of the country we can roll out an effective programme. I will be talking to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, to see how we can accelerate this delivery.

See this speech in context