Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an ábhar seo a chur mar shaincheist sa Dáil. It provides me with an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, who cannot be here this morning, to outline the current position in respect of capital projects to deliver replacement and additional accommodation for Blessington Community College and Temple Carrig School under the reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme.

With respect to Blessington Community College, the school authority, which is Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board, KWETB, applied to the Department for additional accommodation under the additional school accommodation scheme to cater for increased enrolment pending delivery of its major capital project to cater for an agreed long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils. Approval was granted to the school authority for the replacement of four existing prefabricated units, which were in poor condition and unused, and for a further two general classrooms, which will provide Blessington Community College with a total of six additional general classrooms. The project as outlined is being delivered under the Department of Education's devolved reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. That programme is a new stream under the additional school accommodation scheme, which provides the services of a project manager to help the school authority with delivery. That approach supports accelerated delivery of the accommodation and maximises help for the school authority for the delivery of the brief.

The project for Blessington Community College will be delivered from the Department's procurement frameworks, which offer schools the option to provide and deliver a turnkey project with efficiency in terms of timelines, experience and tried and tested service with professional design teams and contractors. Projects delivered under this scheme are devolved to school authorities under the terms and conditions of the scheme, and it is a matter for schools to progress these projects on that basis, subject to departmental review at various points in the process. I wish to point out that under this programme the number of stages has been minimised to ensure efficiency of delivery while maintaining the necessary governance structure. The process for this programme is that the project manager visits the school site and, in consultation with the school authority, prepares a viability report to identify the best accommodation solution for submission to the Department for consideration and approval. On approval, the Department notifies the school authority that it may proceed to the next stage subject to its agreement of the final project brief, which is confirmed by signing a form of acceptance. On receipt of the form of acceptance, the Department issues the first tranche of three stages of funding.

The school authority, in conjunction with its project manager, can then appoint contractors and works can commence.

I am pleased to confirm that significant progress has been made to date on the urgent provision of school accommodation for Blessington Community College. The assigned project manager has carried out a site visit and has held a number of meetings with the school authority. A suitable site location has been identified for the new accommodation. While the school authority, KWETB, has overall responsibility for delivery of the project, officials from the Department of Education hold weekly meetings with the assigned project managers to ensure this project remains on track for delivery in the next academic year.

With regard to Temple Carrig School, the school authority made an application for additional accommodation under the additional school accommodation scheme to cater for increased enrolment, pending delivery of its capital budget. This project is approved and is being delivered under the Department's devolved reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. The brief for the modular accommodation project is to provide four general classrooms to cater for the school's increased enrolment for September 2023. The Department has identified suitable modular accommodation to be relocated to Temple Carrig School, as the Deputy has outlined. The delivery of this project has also been devolved to the school authority, which has overall responsibility for the delivery of the project, and it will be helped by an assigned project manager. The project is currently at detailed design stage and preparation of statutory applications with an estimated completion date for the 2023-24 school year.

See this speech in context