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

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an ábhar seo a ardú mar Shaincheist Tráthúil. It gives me the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, who cannot be here this evening. I am in the Department under the Minister. I will outline to the House, on behalf of the Minister, the current position in relation to capital projects to deliver replacement and additional accommodation for Davitt College and St. Bríd's Special School under the Department’s reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme.

The school authority of Davitt College, which is Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB, applied to the Department for additional accommodation under the additional school accommodation scheme, ASA. I am pleased to advise that approval under the ASA scheme has issued to the school authority in question for the provision of modular accommodation to provide for seven mainstream classrooms, five special education teaching rooms, an art room, a science room and a preparation area, toilets, and the reconfiguration of existing accommodation for two special education needs classes. The project is devolved for delivery to Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB and is being delivered under the Department’s devolved reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme.

This programme is a new delivery stream under the ASA scheme which provides the services of a project manager to help school authorities with delivery of urgently required school accommodation. The project management support is designed to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and helps to ease the administrative workload for school authorities in regard to the management and delivery of projects. The use of the Department's modular accommodation frameworks also helps in ensuring lead-in periods for procurement of modular accommodation are minimised to the greatest extent possible while delivering a turnkey project with efficiency in terms of timelines, experience and tried and tested service with professional design teams and contractors. Projects delivered under the 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. Under this programme, the number of stages have been minimised to ensure efficiency of delivery while maintaining the necessary governance structure.

The project manager has already visited the school site and has prepared a viability report to identify the best accommodation solution for submission to the Department for consideration and approval. This has been approved by the Department which has received the school authority’s signed form of acceptance. Thereafter, the school authority in conjunction with the project manager appoints contractors and works start. While the overall construction sector environment is challenging, the Department is working closely with the project management company and the school authority to ensure that this urgently needed accommodation is delivered as quickly as possible.

In regard to St. Bríd’s Special School, approval was granted to the school authority for the provision of accommodation in respect of two special education needs classes. This project is also being delivered under the Department of Education’s devolved reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. The project manager is working closely with my Department on finalising approval of the viability report to identify the best accommodation solution which takes account of prior engagement with the school authority. Once this has been completed within the coming week, formal approval by the Department will issue to the school authority. It is expected that the school authority will then return the signed form of acceptance and that contractors will be appointed to enable the works to start. My Department will continue to work closely with the project manager to ensure this important project is delivered in the most timely manner possible, notwithstanding the previously mentioned challenging overall construction sector environment.

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