Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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307. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the creation of a new further education and training college in Galway to consolidate the provision by the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board of education in the city and to enable the Board to deliver on the national Further Education and Training Strategy and on his Department's policy mission to develop Ireland's further and higher education and research and innovation system to ensure that they are capable of meeting the diverse needs of all; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60120/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The College of the Future Major Projects Fund will support the implementation of the vision set out in the Further Education Strategy.

During a recent visit to Galway earlier this week, I was very pleased to announce that Galway Roscommon ETBs strategic proposal to develop a Further Education College in Galway city was successful in the first stage of the assessment process under the FET College of the Future Major Projects Fund.

GRETB’s proposal envisages the development of a new state-of-the-art FET campus on a site adjacent to its Mervue Training facility. This proposed new development would facilitate the strengthening and consolidation of FET in Galway City to meet the needs of learners, teaching staff and the wider region due to its close proximity to the training Centre in Mervue, Atlantic Technological University and NUI Galway.

This proposal will now progress to the next stage of the project lifecycle under the Public Spending Code, which requires the development of a detailed Preliminary Business Case. This will begin in early 2023. A further evaluation of preliminary business cases for the ten proposals will be undertaken in 2023.