Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir fá choinne na ceiste seo. Tuigim na buntáistí agus na míbhuntáistí a ghabhann leis an ardú daonra sa cheantar agus tuigim na fadhbanna maidir leis na seomraí sealadacha. Tá sé soiléir go bhfuil tionchar suntasach ag an fhadhb sin ar an scoil.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the Seanad the current position of the major building project for St. Molaga's senior national school in Balbriggan, County Dublin. A building project for this school is included in the Department's school building programme being delivered under the national development plan. A project brief has been finalised and proposes a 16-classroom school, to include two special class teachers, eight special education tuition rooms and a two-class special education needs base. The project will be delivered by the Department's accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering, ADAPT, programme, an innovative, accelerated delivery programme first introduced by my Department in 2016. It uses a professional, external project manager appointed to a selected programme of projects to co-ordinate and expedite the work of the respective design teams on each project.

In this regard, a tender competition to establish a project manager framework is due to conclude on Wednesday, 10 April. Once established, this framework will be used in a tender competition to appoint a project manager for the ADAPT programme. Once a project manager is appointed, the next step will be for the project manager to run the tender competitions for the appointment of the individual design teams. My Department wrote to the school and, as the Seanadóir pointed out, a phone call was made to the school to provide an update on the status of this project.

I assure the Seanadóir that we have a new programme in operation, through ADAPT, keeping a close eye on it. It is a national programme comprising many schools from different constituencies throughout the country, including my own. It is a new way of doing things and the big feedback I am getting from the schools that are dealing with this project is that it takes pressure off the school. Once a project manager is appointed to administer this programme, I am confident that this will be a new way of trying to move it forward in as speedy a manner as possible.