Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I would like to be associated with Deputy Ó Ríordáin's words on the former Minister, Niamh Bhreathnach. I remember her with great fondness and have had the opportunity to say so in this House. She was truly a visionary woman who made an extraordinary contribution to the world of education. We are certainly the lesser for her passing. I acknowledge that in the context of what the Labour Party is doing here today.

I am very appreciative of the opportunity to acknowledge very sincerely all that occurs and all that happens in our schools every single day along with all the staff do to best support children and young people in the education sector. It is important to note that, since its formation two and a half years ago, this Government has made truly record levels of investment available to our education system. Funding of almost €10 billion supports a myriad of actions and initiatives to ensure that every child and young person is supported to reach his or her full potential. This investment has occurred across every area of the Department’s activity, from school buildings to special education and curricular reform. I will use my time to update the House on just some of these initiatives.

Reference has been made to a school being so much more than a building, something of which I am very conscious. However, at the same time, I also recognise the need for, and benefit of, investment in our physical infrastructure. Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing €4.4 billion over the period 2021 to 2025 to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities across the country for the almost 1 million students and more than 100,000 staff who learn and work in our schools every day. More than 180 school building projects were delivered during 2022. This included the accelerated delivery of modular accommodation to facilitate additional capacity in special classes and special schools to cater for more than 900 children in response to the increasing prevalence of special education needs. This ambitious programme was delivered notwithstanding the significant challenges arising from building cost inflation. Approximately 300 school building projects continued in construction at the start of 2023, the majority of which will be completed in 2023 or early 2024. This includes 40 new school buildings and more than 260 projects in existing schools. This is a very strong level of delivery of school building projects and reflects the Government’s priority for investment in education. Other key achievements under the school building programme in 2022 include: successfully supporting and facilitating the enrolment of 15,000 children from Ukraine in our primary and post-primary schools since March 2022; progressing 16 deep energy retrofit pathfinder projects in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland; enhancing the State’s strategic planning for school place delivery through geographic information systems; and establishing 16 regional education and language teams, REALTs, to facilitate enrolment of children from Ukraine.

However, these are challenging times across all areas of construction with high levels of construction inflation. In addition to the normal pressures on the school building budget, there are also additional pressures in the context of the requirement to accelerate delivery of accommodation for children with special education needs and also in respect of capacity for the continued inflow of Ukrainian and other international protection students, particularly at post-primary level where accommodation pressures are more acute.

I am very appreciative of the strong support provided by Government for our education budget. The Department's published national development plan allocation for 2023 is €860 million. Some 73% of this allocation is needed to cover expenditure on contractual commitments on the approximately 300 existing projects at construction carried forward from 2022 that I have mentioned. The Department's planning and building unit is currently assessing its work programme and priorities for 2023 in the context of its available funding. We are currently engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in respect of these funding arrangements. I am appreciative of the support which has been offered by the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in this regard. The Department has sought to reassure relevant school communities that school building projects that are currently on hold due to capital funding pressures will be progressed and delivered.

At this point it is simply a question of the timing of that. The Department is well aware of the urgency of getting these projects delivered as quickly as possible.

Regarding the Deputy's request to publish a list of delayed projects, it is best and appropriate for communications to be done at individual school level and that is the approach that has been taken. The Department has prioritised engagement with boards of management and principals before publishing wider information and will be providing a further update to individual schools when engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform concludes. In tandem with this, the Department’s planning and building unit will also be updating patron bodies and school management bodies at that stage.

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