Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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323. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the selection of schools under the pathways school building retrofitting programme will commence; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56207/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is at the forefront of design with respect to sustainable energy in school buildings and this performance has been recognised at both National and International level with sustainable energy awards for excellence in Design and Specification.

My Department’s Technical Guidance Documents set the benchmark for sustainable design in school buildings with a clear focus on energy efficiency and they are based on solid energy research projects.

Schools that are designed and built in accordance with the Department’s schools technical guidance documents have been achieving A3 Building Energy Ratings since 2009 with current schools typically achieving up to 20% higher performance than required by the current Building Regulations, along with 10% of primary energy provided via photovoltaics and infrastructure provision for electric vehicle charging.

All new technologies and approaches are tested to ensure compatibility with school design and operational requirements. Successful and repeatable results are then incorporated into all new school designs and refurbishments. The Departments policy is supported by a strong research programme with fifty three research projects at various stages including the energy website www.energyineducation.ie., a joint partnership with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

My Department and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications established a jointly funded pathfinder programme with the SEAI, testing and demonstrating energy efficiency and decarbonisation retrofit approaches. This pathfinder is a great example of collaboration ensuring the deployment of new design approaches and technologies are introduced to the educational environment on an evidence based approach.

This government-funded energy retrofit pathfinder programme will target energy use and CO2 emission reduction by 51%, testing deep retrofit and low carbon heating solutions.

This programme continues to assist the Department to explore options and test various solutions for decarbonised energy efficiency solutions in our broad range of school building types. It is paving the way for, and informing, a much larger schools national programme for the energy retrofit of schools built prior to 2008 as included in the National Development Plan and will play a key part of meeting delivery of the Climate Action Plan.

Design teams are being appointed to each school in the pathfinder programme to feasibility stage to investigate retrofit and decarbonisation options, and works will roll out from summer 2023 subject to the outcome of the feasibility stage. The feasibility stage includes looking at various options for potential retrofit levels with renewable heat up to what would be required to be a Zero Emission Building.

The schools for 2023 present a variety of challenges, including building age, archetype and retrofit requirements. The works typically involves upgrades to the building fabric including wall and roof insulation, doors and windows, air tightness improvements, LED lighting and heating upgrades as well as renewable technologies.

The pathfinder programme has retrofitted 42 schools across Ireland to date with work on an additional 15 schools currently at various stages of progress. The 2023/2024 programme will see up to ten schools benefitting from a selection of energy efficiency works.

The general principles and approach to school selection include schools meeting Energy Monitoring and Reporting requirements and demonstrating a strong and holistic commitment to energy management practices through participation in the Energy in Education Programme. The programme selection also seeks to enable various cross sections of school types and sizes, energy consumption profiles and different elements of construction type and heritage/conservation requirements where specific learnings are being targeted. The pathfinder programme is thus delivered on broad assessment in line with the above considerations and not on an application basis.