Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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107. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the impact on the national development plan of recent disclosures of serious problems in respect of the publicly contracted building projects, including schools; the amount of extra funding required to repair buildings; the impact of same on the overall spend on the national development plan; if he plans an additional supplementary estimate to meet the extra cost; if not, if the costs will come from savings; and if so, the source from which they will come. [49203/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, over the course of the mid-term break my Department undertook structural assessments on all  42 school buildings constructed by Western Building Systems since 2003 following the identification of significant structural issues at Ardgillan Community College in Balbriggan during an assessment undertaken by a structural engineer at the school on 19 October.  The safety of school students and staff has been and will continue to be, my Department's overriding priority.

My Department will now be moving as quickly as possible to the next phase, which is to initiate more detailed structural investigations at the 42 schools and, following on from this, to implement the permanent remediation works required. This will enable an implementation plan to be put in place which will include, as appropriate, projected timelines and expected remediation costs.   Until such time as this work is completed, a robust cost estimate cannot be formulated. Therefore there are currently no plans at this stage for an additional supplementary estimate.  The Department fully intends to pursue the company through all contractual and legal channels for the cost of the precautionary measures and the remediation work.

Under the National Development Plan, the Department’s total capital allocation for 2019 is €941m, which represents an increase of close to €200m on the 2018 figure.  As in other years, the Department will proactively manage its capital allocation across the various subheads and budget lines to advance its school building and other capital investment priorities.  The costs of the remediation works will be kept under close review in this context.