Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

262. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost to include the building of an extra classroom to each planned school build in the next five year period. [27665/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The notional cost of building a classroom, at current building costs, for a primary school is €176,937.50 including VAT and for a post primary school is €165,762.50 including VAT.

The projects that are planned for the next five years are already at various stages of Architectural Planning, many of which have statutory approvals in place such as Planning Permission, Fire Certs and Disability Access Certs. If an extra classroom was to be added to each of these schools, the projects would all have to be redesigned and statutory approvals would have to be obtained again. This would result in significant extra cost, including abortive fees for Design Teams, and would invariably result in a significant slowdown in the delivery of much needed schools on the building programme.

Due to the specificity of each project, the cost of adding an additional classroom to each school on the building programme is not readily ascertainable and would representative a significant administrative burden to attempt to compile. However, if the Deputy wishes to nominate a particular school or schools where it is considered that an additional classroom may be warranted, I would be happy to have my officials examine the feasibility of providing same.