Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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249. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the successful schools will be informed if they are to receive works to be carried out under the summer works scheme in 2024. [50928/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As you may be aware, the purpose of the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works which, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The SWS operates on a multi-annual basis and was last opened for applications in 2019.

The Department is leading an ambitious sustainability agenda and has progressed a wide array of measures to improve the overall sustainability of our school buildings.  It is a priority for Government to deliver on Ireland’s ambitious climate agenda and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This includes targets around the decarbonisation of Ireland’s public buildings.

As part of it’s planning for 2023 and beyond, Department officials are working on the arrangements for the next phases of the summer works programme.  It is envisaged at this stage that, a new Multi-Annual SWS with a focus on climate action and energy conservation will be opened for new applications in early 2024. Schools will be notified of the details of the SWS in due course.