Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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236. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a review being undertaken by her Department in respect of a stage 2B submission will be finalised and the school (details supplied) contacted about the outcome of this review as it has been confirmed that it has been near completion for some time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9366/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The project to which the Deputy refers includes an extension to the existing school buildings, decanting if required, necessary to satisfactorily develop the post primary school on its existing site to cater for an enrolment of 700 pupils. The project has been devolved for delivery to the school authority and it has appointed a design team to progress the project.

The Stage 2b architectural report has been received by my Department and is currently under review from both a technical and cost perspective. The review is nearing completion and my Department will revert to the school authority directly on the outcome and the next steps to progress this project.

There is an overall pipeline of some 1300 projects across the school system. The current status of all projects is listed on a county by county basis at www.gov.ie and this is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.

My Department has a strong track record of delivery of school building projects and this was achieved again in 2023 notwithstanding the wider construction sector environment of high inflation, labour shortages and supply chain issues.

Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing over €5 billion during 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.

My Department is very appreciative of the strong support provided by Government for our education budget. As part of the supplementary budget, €405m additional capital funding was provided in 2023. This helped to alleviate capital funding pressures that arose in 2023 which was reflective of the strong delivery by my Department of school building projects – particularly to support mainstream provision accommodating Ukrainian students and special education needs provision. My Department’s overall capital out-turn for 2023 was €1.264 billion.

We continue to have a strong pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme involving circa. 300 projects currently at construction, which include 34 new school buildings. We also have a large modular accommodation programme delivering urgently needed school places. The Department has always operated a tightly prioritised approach to the school building programme, focused over recent years on the delivery of additional capacity where required, and this will continue to be the case.