Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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10. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline the capital projects in the further education sector that will be progressed in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26306/25]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I very much welcome the emphasis placed on the development of the further education sector since the previous Government took office in June 2020. I spoke to the Minister's predecessors on many occasions about the opportunities that exist to develop the further education sector on an all-island basis, and particularly that there be a substantial capital programme. One of the projects of particular interest to me is the proposed development of a state-of-the-art campus in Cavan to provide additional permanent accommodation at Cavan Institute. I would be grateful if the Minister would give me an outline of the progress he expects to make with his capital funding this year.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his continuing interest in the Cavan project as well as others. More generally, on the Department's capital ceiling over the last period there is a dedicated capital envelope, which the Deputy referred to, that amounted to €300 million for the further education and training sector, FET. Available funding has increased again from a low base of €6 million in 2018 to €107 million in the current year. That is a very significant multiplier of the available funding for the FET colleges and the FET system.

Funding for the FET capital projects is distributed through SOLAS under a number of different funding streams. There are 70 small- to medium-scale projects being progressed at the moment. This includes everything from minor capital works, emergency health and safety works and the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund, as well as devolved funding directly from my Department for minor capital works.

I am aware the Cavan-Monaghan project is of interest to the Deputy. The proposal there is to build centralised accommodation on land owned and currently occupied by the Cavan Institute on Cathedral Road in the town. That building will have modern learning spaces, specialised areas, and social and recreation spaces, surrounded by open spaces to create a vibrant campus community. It will have a complete range of supports, including guidance counselling. We heard earlier how important counselling is to make sure students make the right choices at the right times. The campus will also include quiet spaces and informal learning spaces. The project received approval in October 2024, it passed through approval gate No. 1, AG-1, of the infrastructure guidelines and is progressing to the next stage, which is pre-tender, project design, planning, and procurement strategy stage. SOLAS is currently working with the Cavan-Monaghan ETB to progress this through the next stage.

As the Deputy has flagged this as an area of interest, I will certainly keep a close eye on it and will update him as it progresses along. It is going well. It is past the first stage and is now at the next stage, which is the pre-tender stage. SOLAS, the Department and I are working to progress it. We will certainly make sure it moves quickly along.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I very warmly welcome the Minister's confirmation that progress is being made with this very important project for our constituency, as the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy David Maxwell, will know. I hope the Minister will be in a position to visit Cavan Institute at an early date, and to visit Monaghan Institute. Cavan Institute been a very successful institute since its establishment. I was very much involved with the Cavan Institute in its early days. I was the first chair of the board of management of the college. I was also very much involved in getting the original building on Cathedral Road, which is no longer adequate due to increased enrolments over the years. Cavan Institute was the first dedicated post-leaving certificate college in the country. It has developed collaborations with colleges north of the Border too, which is very important.

As the Minister outlined in his reply, the institute needs additional permanent accommodation. I am very glad that there will be such a range of classroom and other ancillary accommodation, plus sports facilities. I hope SOLAS will be able to drive this capital programme forward as urgently as possible. I am delighted the Minister has secured from the Department of public expenditure additional funding to bolster the capital budget. I know the work of the Cavan-Monaghan ETB, which the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will know also, and this funding would be put to very good use.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I absolutely know it will be put to very good use. It is a fantastic and very exciting project and it is great to hear the history of that building, and indeed of the project and further education in the Cavan-Monaghan area. I thank the Deputy for the invitation to visit. I will certainly put that in my diary and will get there in due course. I would like to see it for myself. You cannot beat seeing it for real and meeting the teams on the ground to understand how projects are coming on. I thank the Deputy for his interest. He was involved in the original site. I will certainly keep a close eye on that and will get to it in due course.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. It is very important that we record the importance of the further education sector. It was originally established to respond to the needs of the local community and the local economy. It has been an extremely important gateway for students and pathway to higher education. It has given so many people, who traditionally would not have had the opportunity, the opportunity to get an education beyond post primary. It has been extremely important in ensuring that more people, who may have come from homes where there was not a particularly heavy emphasis on education, see that pathway to forward their education to successful careers. I very much welcome the emphasis the previous Government and this one have placed on this sector. I have no doubt the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, will lead the sector very well. I again emphasise that the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and I represent two Border counties. We are always very conscious of our neighbours in Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh and the potential there for further and more intense collaboration on a cross-Border basis.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy and I thank him for those points on access to the system for those who maybe would not have had that given they were coming from backgrounds where traditionally education or higher education was not a feature. The further education sector has been so progressive and has led so much in making education accessible to so many more families in a community setting and closer to home. It has made it easier to access education, despite economic reasons, family reasons or caring reasons, and has provided a welcome to, and has embraced, people.

There is a very exciting new development relating to tertiary degrees, of which the Deputy is probably aware. I recently met many tertiary degree students from around the country at an event in Grangegorman. The option is there for students to start their training or educational journey in a college of further education in a local area closer to home, which makes it easier on many fronts. After one or two years in a college of further education they can then progress a to a more traditional higher education institution and go on to degree-level accreditation. That is a wonderful journey.

There are many more opportunities. The Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, and I visited the National Construction Training Centre in Mount Lucas, County Offaly, yesterday. The careers that are opening up in construction are huge. Very exciting new journeys are opening there as well.