Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress of the Design and Build Schools 2020-2021 programme; and when projects currently delayed due to Covid-19 are expected to recommence towards construction. [20971/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is currently in the final stages of the process of establishing a Design & Build contractors framework to which Design and Build projects can be tendered.

During that tender process, some short extension of time requests were submitted by Tenderers for various reasons such as delays in receiving information from resources, delays in design completions, delays in interaction with specialist supply chain members, ongoing disruption caused to working practices and team interaction by the Coronavirus restrictions and the overall impact of Covid-19 restrictions. However, these have been relatively minor. Once the new Contractors Framework is in place, further projects which have already secured planning permission will be tendered to that framework in a timely and structured process.

Work in relation to the design and planning applications for projects at earlier stages of the progression towards tender and construction stages has been ongoing and has not paused. The Deputy may also be aware that school construction sites have remained open during the recent restrictions.