Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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289. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position with regard to the completion of structural assessments for all schools completed by a company (details supplied) for his Department since 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44973/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The structural assessments have been conducted on the schools in question and the outcome is available on the Department's website at www.education.gov.ie.

I wish to assure the Deputy that the safety of school students and staff has been, and will continue to be, the Department’s overriding priority during this process.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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290. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of applications for fire safety works received by his Department in 2017 and to date in 2018; the number of applications which have been accepted and rejected, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44975/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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In 2017, my Department received 18 applications to address fire safety issues in schools. Of these, 17 applications were approved. My Department has requested additional information from the school authority in respect of the remaining application to enable it to be properly assessed.

To date in 2018 my Department has received 63 applications for fire safety works in schools.

49 applications have been approved. The remainder are either awaiting additional information from the school authority or revised applications.

One school was unsuccessful because it already had adequate fire safety measures in place in the school.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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291. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of fire safety audits conducted by his Department 2017 and to date in 2018; the county in which the audits took place; if issues were identified in these audits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44976/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The Department initiated a programme of fire safety assessments in 55 schools in Q4 2017. This involved 30 schools constructed by Western Building Systems under Design and Build contracts and a representative sample of 25 other schools constructed over the last 20 years. Fire Safety Consultants have visited all 55 schools and to date 51 initial Fire Safety Assessment reports have been received in my Department with the remaining 4 reports due in the coming weeks. The Fire Safety Consultants have engaged directly with the fire officers in their respective local authorities to advise of remedial works planned and underway.

The reports identify various housekeeping, maintenance and remedial works to be addressed and the Department has engaged the services of KSN Project Managers with a full technical team including Architects, Engineers and Fire Safety Consultants, to organise and oversee any necessary remedial works.

Fire Safety Assessments were undertaken in the following counties; Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Kilkenny, Westmeath, Laois, Wexford, Galway, Mayo, Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Monaghan.