Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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612.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on the school building programme in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31118/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2020, my department has invested in the region of €4.9 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 900 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 30 new school buildings. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.2bn.

I also announced earlier in the year that close to 90 projects, including 28 new school buildings, would be authorised to proceed from tender stage to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025. In total, around €800 million will be invested in these projects under the department’s Large Scale Capital Programme and Additional Accommodation Scheme for essential classroom accommodation.

Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 550,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate.

This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

The key drivers of capital investment in the school sector include:

• demographic growth, particularly at post primary level
• increased demand for special educational needs provision
• alignment of school place provision with new housing development
• climate action objectives including deep energy retrofit.

Between 2020 to date 128 school building projects have been completed in Co. Cork, including 11 new schools.

Currently there are 30 school building projects under construction in Co. Cork, of which 1 is a new school for Ballinaspittle National School.

There are also circa 170 school building projects (Large Scale/ASA/Modular) in Co. Cork moving through the various stages of design, of which 20 are new school projects.

These projects are being delivered to ambitious time frames, and the position on individual projects evolves all the time as they advance through various stages. The status of all projects is set out at . This is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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613.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the development of a new school site (details supplied); if tenders have been awarded; when the new schools will be operational; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31123/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school campus building project for the schools referred to by the Deputy is included in my Department’s Construction Programme and will deliver a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school and accommodation, including 6 classrooms, for children with special educational needs and a new 8 classroom primary school and accommodation, including 2 classrooms, for children with special educational needs.

The project will be delivered under my Department's ADAPT Programme which uses a professional external Project Manager to co-ordinate and drive the Design Team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of Architectural Planning, to Tender and Construction.

The Programme Manager was appointed in Q3 2023 and is in the process of preparing documentation for the tender process for the appointment of multi-disciplinary design team consultants.

It is not possible to provide a timeframe for the progression of the project to tender and construction stages until such time as the necessary statutory approvals have been secured.

My Department will keep the schools and their patron bodies informed of the progression of this campus project and in relation to interim accommodation pending delivery of the permanent accommodation for the schools.