Written answers

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Department of Education and Skills

Schools Building Projects Status

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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71. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the planned school building project for a school (details supplied), construction of which was scheduled to commence in 2014 or 2015, in addition to the details of scale and nature of that project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37955/16]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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73. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the planned school building project for a school (details supplied), construction of which was scheduled to commence in 2014 or 2015, along with details of the scale and nature of that project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38069/16]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 73 together.

The project to which the Deputy refers has reached an advanced stage of architectural planning, Stage 2b, which involves securing the statutory approvals and the preparation of tender documents.

The design team was appointed in March 2011 with a brief to provide the extension and refurbishment work on a phased basis with a partial decant of classrooms on the existing site. The project was included in the five year construction programme 2012-16 and was scheduled therein to commence construction in 2014.

Planning permission was granted in January 2014. Since then the Board of Management and its design team have presented a number of proposals to the Department to change the brief to one which involves a single decant and a single phased delivery during construction. This has led to significant delays in the progression of the project. The most recent decant option, which included the provision of significant levels of new temporary accommodation on site involved an additional cost for the project in the region of €2 million – an increase in the overall cost of the project of around 40%.

The additional €2 million cost for the project arising from the Board of Managements single phase decant and construction proposal raised serious questions as to the viability of the project.

A meeting was convened by my Department recently, to which the Board of Management and their Design Team were invited in order to resolve any outstanding issues in this regard to enable Stage 2b to be finalised. 

That meeting was held on the 11th November and agreement was reached in relation to a scaling back of the temporary accommodation costs which should now allow the project to progress to the completion of the design stages.

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