Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity, on behalf of the Department of Education, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the large scale capital building project for Lismullen National School, County Meath. I am answering this question on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley.

This project is included in the Department of Education’s construction programme which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of Project Ireland 2040 framework. The Department’s planning and building unit is currently assessing its work programme and priorities for 2024 in the context of overall requirements. Lismullen National School remains a priority for delivery, in line with the accommodation issues present at the school. The tender process was undertaken and a contractor identified. The next steps for this project will be the completion of the tender process and progression to stage 4, which is construction.

I want to reassure the Deputy and the Lismullen National School community that the school building project will be progressed and delivered. The Department will update the school authorities when there is a further update on the progression of the major project.

The project brief for the project at Lismullen National School includes the construction of a 16-classroom primary school and the demolition of the existing school building. The next step is that the project is at an advanced stage of architectural planning, stage 3, tender action and award and the next step in the process will be the authorisation to issue the letter of intent to the contractor. The officials are determining the best timeline for proceeding to construction. When the project commences on site, there will be an estimated 20-months contract duration.

The timeline on this is as follows. In December 2011, the design team for this project was appointed. In January 2012, the project was authorised to progress to stage 2a, which is the developed sketch design stage. Then in February 2013, the project completed stage 2a and was authorised to proceed to stage 2b, which is the detailed design and which includes securing statutory approvals and preparation of tender documents. It then went to the phasing strategy, which was developed in detail by the design team, and then the planning permission application for the temporary accommodation was lodged with Meath County Council in January 2019.

Following a request for further information from Meath County Council, the planning was granted in August 2019. At that point, the design team was working on the completion of the stage 2b report, which requires the inclusion of a near-zero energy building in compliance with the 2017 amendment to part L of the current building regulations. The stage 2b report was received in February 2021 for the Department’s review and approval. Then on 10 May 2021 the Department issued stage 2b comments to the school and design team for its intention. On 28 March 2022, the pre-qualification final shortlist was received in the Department from the design team leader. On 8 April 2022, a final stage 2b approval letter was issued to the school and design team, approving the stage 2b design and approval to proceed to tender stage.

On 1 July 2022, incomplete tender submissions were received by the design team. On 20 July 2022, the design team, in consultation with the Department issued approval for the school to proceed with the open tender procedure. In October 2022, the extension of time granted to the tender return date to facilitate contractors interested in tendering saw a new tender return date of the end of October 2022. In January 2023, clarifications were requested on the tender report received by the Department and the tenderer subsequently withdrew. Then we went to May 2023 up to January 2024, as the Deputy mentioned.

The reason I outlined that is to show the Deputy that all along there has been progress at every different stage and that it is progressing.

See this speech in context