Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on whether the Covid cleaning grant for schools will be continued for term 2; and when the payment schedule will issue. [14330/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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More than €362 million of additional Covid-19 Capitation grant funding has been made available to recognised primary and post primary schools to provide for the implementation of infection prevention and control measures to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID -19 to date.

As the Deputy is aware, the continued payment of Covid-19 capitation grants is determined by the prevailing public health advice at the time.

I am pleased to confirm that circa €38 million has recently been provided to schools to cater for ongoing enhanced cleaning, PPE and hand hygiene for Term 2 of the 2022/23 school year. This represents a total of €400.7 million to date.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the minor works grants for 2023; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13840/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has a strong track record of delivery of school building projects and this was achieved again in 2022 notwithstanding the wider construction sector environment of high inflation, labour shortages and supply chain issues.

Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing €4.4 billion over the period 2021 to 2025, to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities across the country for the almost one million students and over 100,000 staff that learn and work in our schools every day.

During 2022, there was circa. 180 school building projects delivered during 2022 and a further 300 school building projects remained under construction at the start of 2023 – the majority of which will be completed over the course of this year and early 2024. In this regard, it is worth noting that there were over 50 new school buildings under construction over the course of 2022. This is providing high quality new and modern facilities in schools throughout the country. There was also accelerated delivery of modular accommodation to facilitate additional capacity in special classes and special schools to cater for over 900 children with additional needs. In addition, there was necessary refurbishment and maintenance in nearly 1,000 schools under the Multi-annual Summer Works Scheme and the Emergency Works Scheme.

The Department recognises the importance of the Minor Works Grant to primary schools. The funding provides good flexibility at local level to assist schools to manage and undertake works that support the operation of the school.

A total of €280 million in Minor Works Grants and Enhanced Minor Works Grants has been allocated to schools between 2018 and 2022.

The Minor Works Grant for primary schools for the current school year 2022/2023 was paid in December in 2021.

My Department has a strong pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme involving approximately 300 projects at construction and in excess of 1,000 projects at the various stages of appraisal and design.

I am very appreciative of the strong support provided by Government for our education budget. As part of the supplementary budget, €300m additional capital funding was provided in 2022. This helped to alleviate capital funding pressures that arose in 2022 which was reflective of the strong delivery by my Department of school building projects – particularly to support mainstream provision and special education needs provision. My Department’s overall capital outturn for 2022 was €1.12 billion.

My Department's Planning and Building Unit is currently assessing its work programme and priorities for the remainder of 2023 in the context of its available funding. My Department's published NDP allocation for 2023 is €860 million. 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 at the advanced stages of engagement 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 rollout of school building projects to construction in 2023. The timeline for the payment of the next tranche of minor grant funding to primary schools will be considered within this overall context.