Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number with respect to each of the nine stages for the architectural planning programme of primary school building projects for existing schools (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19719/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The stages of architectural planning referred to by the Deputy arise from my Department's design team procedures for the procurement of major capital projects. These are necessary to comply with Department of Finance guidelines which require that capital projects be fully designed prior to going to tender. They also ensure proper cost management of capital projects and facilitate compliance with statutory and public procurement requirements. At present, there are nine stages involved in the delivery of major school projects under my Department's design and building processes. These fall into 3 main phases.

Stages 1 to 3: Design Team is appointed, site options are identified and the optimum design developed.

Stages 4 to 5: Awarding of planning permission, full completion of design and preparation of tender documents.

Stages 6 to 9: Project goes to tender and construction.

At present, there are 245 primary schools at the following stages of architectural planning:

94 projects are at stages 1 to 3

51 projects are at Stages 4 to 5

100 projects are at Stages 6 to 9

The stages referred to above are currently being revised to take account of the Capital Works Management Framework being developed by the Department of Finance. The effect of this will be to reduce the number of stages to five.

My Department has been using generic repeat design buildings, wherever possible, to achieve a substantial savings in terms of design team fees as well as reducing the time taken to bring projects to completion. The use of design and build solutions has also been introduced particularly for projects in rapidly developing areas in view of the urgency of provision required.