Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the Minister not being present. He is in the Seanad dealing with the Brexit emergency legislation.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline the current position on the major building project for St. Mary’s special school, Navan. This project is included in the 2016 to 2021 six-year construction programme, announced on 17 November 2015, to go to tender and construction. St. Mary’s special school will be part of a shared campus with Coláiste na Mí. The building project will deliver a phase 2 extension for Coláiste na Mí and a new school building for St. Mary’s special school. The new building for St. Mary’s will provide an area of 3,746 sq. m with 11 classrooms and associated ancillary accommodation to cater for pupils with a range of learning disabilities. In December 2018, the project completed stage 2(a), developed design stage, and has been authorised to proceed to stage 2(b), detailed design, which includes the applications for planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificate, as well as the preparation of tender documents.

Planning permission for this particular project was sought earlier than usual in the architectural planning process, during stage 2(a), as a means to identify any potential issues which might arise. All statutory approvals for St. Mary’s are now secured and the project design team is working on the completion of the stage 2(b) submission and bringing the project to tender ready stage. This will include the pre-qualification of contractors for the main contract and reserved specialist contracts, as well as compiling a shortlist of contractors. Upon receipt and review of the stage 2(b) submission, the project will then be authorised to commence the pre-qualification of contractors. Pre-qualification normally takes between eight and 12 weeks to complete. When pre-qualification is complete, the project will then be progressed to tender stage. A tender stage normally takes between seven and eight months to complete.

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