Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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184. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the value of the education capital contingency fund in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019 by category. [47358/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The Public Spending Code requires Government Departments to make contingency provision within their overall capital programme to meet any unforeseen demands or additional costs which might emerge for the capital programme as a whole.

In accordance with this requirement, the cost for the schools remediation programme is being met to date through a contingency provision as part of the increased 2019 capital budget of €942m and also from the reduced funding requirement for the multi-annual capital development in TU Dublin Grangegorman following the sale of DIT Kevin Street

Prior to 2019 my Department’s approach has been to manage contingencies at individual capital programme level rather than as part of an explicit global contingency provision.

As a strengthening of the contingency provision process, from 2019, my Department made explicit provision of €40m to cover contingencies across the Capital Programme. This process will be continued for the years 2020 onwards.

In addition, my Department continues to manage its overall capital budget through effective programme management of the rollout of projects under the National Development Plan 2018 to 2027.