Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

First, I will discuss the Department of Education and Youth school energy retrofit pathfinder programme. The Department is leading an ambitious sustainable agenda and has progressed a number of measures to improve the overall sustainability of our school buildings as part of our work towards the 2030 and 2050 climate targets. Its performance has been recognised at national and international levels with sustainable energy awards for excellence in design, specification and delivery. The Department's policy is supported by a strong research programme, with 56 research programmes at various stages.

It is a priority for the Government to deliver on Ireland's ambitious climate agenda and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Department's school sector technical climate action roadmap which was published in 2023 and updated again last year, 2024. In that regard, the Department of Education and Youth and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment have developed a joint-funded school sector decarbonisation pathfinder programme. It is administered by the planning and building unit in the Department of Education and Youth and the SEAI in partnership with devolved delivery support from the Cork, Limerick and Clare, and Longford Westmeath education and training boards, ETBs.

The pathfinder programme facilitates research into a range of typical retrofit options for schools which will be tried and tested. It is providing valuable development information for a solution-driven strategy which will be founded on a solid evidence base that has proved the robustness and scalability of renewable solutions in the school sector. In this context, the pathfinder programme operates on a selection basis, rather than through an application process. The pathfinder programmes for 2025 have already been committed to. The general principles of the approach to school selection include that schools comply with their annual reporting obligations to the SEAI in respect of energy usage and energy monitoring and reporting scheme and that secondary schools demonstrate a strong holistic commitment to energy management practices through participation in the energy in education website portal and advice programme operated by the SEAI in collaboration with the Department of Education and Youth. The programme selection also seeks to include various cross-sections of school types and sizes, energy consumption profiles and different elements of construction type and heritage conservation requirements where specific learning is being targeted.

I should explain that applications for the provision of funding for issues related to an existing school can fall under a number of delivery mechanisms, which most frequently include the summer works and emergency works schemes. The purpose of the emergency works scheme is specifically to provide funding for unforeseen emergencies, thereby ensuring availability of funding for urgent works for schools in need of resources as a result of emergency issues.

Regarding the specific school in question, the emergency works team in the Department of Education and Youth is currently engaging with the school on a number of issues and the option remains open to the school to apply for funding for a number of areas of immediate concern through this mechanism. I urge the school and the Deputy to continue to liaise with the Department on the emergency works so we will be able to help the school with the issues the Deputy outlined.

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