Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gaelscoil Laighean is currently located in interim accommodation in a building at Kill Lane and a room is also rented from the Mount Merrion parish centre, which is located directly across the road. It is intended that the school will move to interim accommodation and a permanent site at Mount Anville for September 2023.

With regard to the interim accommodation for Gaelscoil Laighean, an application for planning permission was lodged for the Mount Anville depot site on 21 June 2022. The final grant of permission issued from Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council on 16 September 2022 with 18 conditions. My Department’s design team responded to the council on these conditions on 5 October 2022 and is currently liaising with the local authority to finalise and agree all pre-commencement conditions to allow the building contractor to commence work on the site. The contractor has been appointed.

Agreement in principle for the acquisition of the permanent site was reached with the executive of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council in June 2021, subject to the approval of the elected members of the council. The approval by the elected members to dispose of the lands to the Minister for Education was granted at a council meeting in April 2022. This acquisition is subject to the successful grant of planning permission for the permanent school facility.

With regard to the permanent school building project, the Department has commenced the tender process for the appointment of the project manager for the delivery programme, which includes Gaelscoil Laighean. An expressions of interest notice was published on the eTenders portal on 14 November.

Once the project manager is appointed, he or she will commence the tender process for the appointment of the design team that will take the project forward through the stages of architectural planning to tender and construction. The school and its patron body will be kept fully informed as these steps are progressed.

Gaelscoil Laighean is part of a strong pipeline of school building projects for delivery under the Government’s national development plan, NDP. The Department has a strong track record of delivery with more than 360 school building projects at construction during 2022, including more than 50 new schools. The Department has an allocation of €4.4 billion to facilitate delivery during the period 2021 to 2025.

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