Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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607. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funding will be made available to allow school building projects, for schools such as a school (details supplied) that use temporary accommodation on their permanent sites, to proceed to allow these schools to move into permanent accommodation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12301/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The permanent school building project for the schools referred to by the Deputy is a campus project to deliver a 1,000 pupil post-primary school and accommodation for children with special educational needs and a 16 classroom primary school and accommodation for children with special educational needs. The campus project is being delivered under my Department's Design and Build programme.

My Department's Planning and Building Unit is currently assessing its work programme and priorities for 2023 in the context of its available funding. My Department's published NDP allocation for 2023 is €860 million. Key priorities for my Department's work programme include continuing strong delivery to support the operation of the school system with particular regard to planning ahead for the 2023/24 school year and beyond and also with particular regard to supporting special needs provision.

High construction inflation remains a continuing feature of the construction sector for 2023. As part of its planning ahead for the remainder of 2023, my Department is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in relation to capital funding pressures in order to continue to adequately support the operation of the school system with roll out of school building projects to construction in 2023.

We are currently at a very advanced stage with these discussions. Progress has been made and I am anxious to bring this to resolution very soon. I want to reassure the Deputy and the relevant school communities that school building projects that are currently on hold due to capital funding pressures will be progressed and delivered – it is a question of timing. I am well aware of the urgency in getting these projects delivered as quickly as possible. The outcome of our engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform will provide better clarity on the timelines for the progression of these projects. This is a key priority for me. I have engaged directly with Minister Donohue on this matter and will continue to do so with a view to getting our funding pressures resolved as quickly as possible.

We will be providing an update to individual schools when our engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform concludes. In tandem with this, my Department’s Planning & Building Unit will also be updating Patron Bodies and School Management Bodies at that stage.

My Department will continue to liaise with the school’s patron body in relation to the school’s interim accommodation needs pending delivery of the permanent accommodation for the schools.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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608. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason for the expected delay in going to tender to build a new permanent school (details supplied) to Q2 2024, adding a year to the potential opening date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12314/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is being delivered under my Department's school building programme and will provide a 16 classroom primary school and accommodation, including two classrooms for children with special educational needs.

My Department progressed 8 Design & Build (D&B) projects (Lots 1 & 2) to construction in 2021, with a further 10 projects (Lots 3, 4 & 5) progressed to construction in Summer 2022. A further 10 projects (Lot 6) are due to proceed to tender next.

All of these projects are tendered to my Department’s current D&B Contractors Framework. It will be 2024 before the next scheduled bundle of projects (Lot 7) can be tendered to that framework and into late 2024 before further projects could proceed to tender.

In order to have projects delivered at the earliest possible opportunity, my Department is of the view that the intervening period can be utilised to bring a number of projects with planning permission, including the project for the school referred to by the Deputy, to the level of employer-led design with a Design Team assigned to do so under the supervision of my Department’s project manager. This will ensure that such projects do not have to await capacity on the current framework to proceed to tender but rather can be progressed and actioned over that timeframe to tender outside of the D&B framework.

It is envisaged that this will also serve to broaden the range and number of Contractors to which such projects can be tendered than would hitherto have been possible within the Design & Build Framework. This forms part of my Department’s ongoing strategic approach to seek to widen the pool of Contractors tendering for school building projects.

My Department’s Project Manager will be tasked with appointing Design Teams to these projects from my Department’s newly established Frameworks of Consultants with the expectation that these projects could then proceed to tender in early to mid-2024.

My Department will continue to liaise with the school’s patron body in relation to the school’s interim accommodation needs pending delivery of the permanent accommodation for the school and will provide further updates as the project progresses.