Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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424. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on a school building project (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7583/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The permanent building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is being delivered under my Department's Design and Build programme which uses a professional external Project Manager to progress the project through the relevant stages of architectural planning, tender and construction.

An application for Planning Permission was submitted to the relevant Local Authority in June 2021.

A Request for Further Information (RFI) was received on 28th July 2021 and my Department’s Project Manager has been actively working through the items raised. One final item for inclusion in the RFI response is a Letter of Consent which has been requested from the Local Authority. It is expected that a response to the RFI will issue shortly.

It is not possible to provide an indicative timeframe for the progression of the project to tender and construction stages until such time as the necessary statutory approvals have been secured.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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425. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of new school building projects by primary and secondary level being progressed across County Dublin in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7584/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Under Project Ireland 2040, the education sector will receive a total of approximately €4.4 billion capital investment over the period 2021-2025. This significant investment allows us to move forward with certainty on our ambitious plans and deliver high quality building projects, with a real focus on sustainability, for school communities across Ireland.

My Department has a large pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme. The main elements of this pipeline currently involve in excess of 1,200 school building projects for delivery under the Department’s Large Scale and Additional Accommodation Scheme. These projects are currently in progress across the various stages of planning, design, tender and construction.

There are currently in excess of 250 school building projects at construction (on site) with a continuous stream of other projects at or near the tendering stage. Most of which are expected to be either under construction or completed in the period up to 2025 and are being progressed as quickly as possible.

This investment will build on the good progress being made on adding capacity to cater for demographic changes and provision for children with special educational needs. This investment will also facilitate an increased focus on the modernisation of existing school stock and help transition the school system for an era of net zero carbon by 2050.

During the period 2018 to 2021 691 school building projects were completed under the Large Scale Capital Programme (LSCP) and the Additional School Accommodation Scheme (ASA). Of these 108 projects were in Co. Dublin. In total these 691 projects delivered in excess of 64,000 school places.

Overall there are 72 new school building projectsthat are in County Dublin at various stages of planning, design and in construction. These projects are being progressed through the various stages of assessment and delivery.

The length of time a project takes to deliver depends on a number of factors, including scale and complexity, and is subject to the time it takes to progress through the statutory approval process. There is also always a risk of unforeseen issues giving rise to slippage in the progress of a project through the design, statutory approvals or tendering process

The current status of these projects being delivered is listed on a county by county basis on www.gov.ie and is updated on a monthly basis to reflect their progress through the various stages.