Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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729.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on a building for a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32258/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school referred to by the Deputy was approved to enter my department's pipeline of school buildings projects to provide a 2 classroom Special Education Needs base, 12 Special Education Tuition rooms and reconfiguration of an existing staff room to provide a Home School Class Liaison room and new replacement staff room. The project has been devolved for delivery to the school authority.

A Stage 1 architectural report has been submitted by the school’s design team and is currently being reviewed by my department officials. Officials have reverted to the school for further information which was omitted from the Stage 1 submission. Once this information has been received, the review will be completed and an update will be issued directly to the school Board of Management.

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, planning, tender and construction. 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. 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.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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730.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on all school building projects for Cork north central including major capital works, minor capital works, summer works, emergency works, additional ASD units, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32259/24]

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.

Since 2020, in the region of €620 million has been invested in schools in Co. Cork, approximately €580m of which relates to the school building programme. This includes in the region of €25 million for projects under the Emergency Works Scheme and €22 million for projects under the Summer Works Scheme.

The current status of all Large Scale and Additional School Accommodation projects, including those in Cork North Central, is available at the following link:

The following are key updates for project delivery in schools in the Cork North Central area:

• Since 2020, 22 projects completed, including 2 new school buildings
• 3 school building projects currently under construction
• 37 school building projects moving through the various stages of design, of which 3 are new school buildings
• Since 2020, €6m allocated under the minor works grant