John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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47. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied) was omitted from the school buildings programme. [22441/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to clarify for the Deputy that a building project to provide a new permanent building for the school to which he refers is included on my Department’s 6 year capital programme. The project will comprise a new 16-classroom primary school with General Purpose Room and ancillary accommodation. The project will be delivered through the Design and Build approach where the contractor employs elements of off-site construction.

Architectural planning to advance the project has commenced and the tendering process for site surveys is in train. The project will then proceed to secure the necessary statutory approvals. In the context of advancing the project, a representative from my Department’s Building Unit visited the school site last week and this also provided an opportunity to update the school in relation to its project. The subsequent milestone for the project will be the submission of a planning application to the local authority.

The Deputy will be aware that the school is currently located in temporary accommodation on the site where the new school is to be constructed. The site is currently being acquired from the local authority. The Chief State Solicitor's Office is currently finalising the contract in conjunction with the local authority. My Department does not anticipate any difficulty in finalising the transaction at this stage. The finalising of the site purchase is not holding up the progression of the building project.

As the Deputy will be aware, I recently announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next 4 years (2019 to 2022). This announcement follows nationwide, demographic exercises carried out by my Department into the future need for primary and post-primary schools across the country.