Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her four-minute reply to my simple question asking when this matter will be resolved. The answer appears to be that it will be very soon. This does not provide much clarity for the schools involved. The reality is that no matter when it is resolved, this is going to continue to be disruptive. It is particularly disruptive in the context of shovel-ready projects. What do I mean by that? If one looks at Holy Family Community School, for example, the tender has been awarded, an architect has been appointed and the contract is ready to go. The Minister may tell me that it will be a couple of weeks or a couple of months before the project proceeds. No matter what she says, however, there will be disruption for the school. This is because any delay in respect of a shovel-ready project can have serious consequences. It is very different if a project is at stage 2 and planning permission has just been granted and the board of management has been told that it will only be a couple of weeks until funding is allocated. That can be absorbed in the context of the entire process. If a project reaches the point where the time has come to break ground, however, there is a genuine risk that the school may lose its contractor because it can provide no clarity other than saying that matters will proceed very soon. At that point, the project will move backwards in the process and a new tender will have to issue. The project will probably then become more expensive for the Department. It could be a few days or a few weeks. We do not know how long the delay will be - it could be days or weeks - but it could potentially set a project back by a year, particularly if there is a need to re-tender. The final bill could be higher as a result.

That is utterly counterproductive and counterintuitive. Shovel-ready projects have waited way too long to get to this point, and including them in this pause could have a detrimental impact on their timelines and on the Minister's budgets.

We have to be practical. We have to rethink this and allow shovel-ready projects to move ahead while these departmental negotiations continue. Not doing that would not do justice to schools, staff, children and their parents, and I know that is what Deputy Foley wants to achieve as Minister for Education. That is her ambition and it is the shared ambition of us all, but we need to progress these school buildings to make it happen.

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