Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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219. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) can be included in the schools energy retrofit pathfinder programme, rather than substantial funding being allocated solely for a fire alarm and emergency lighting, in view of the very significant works needed to the school building; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39004/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications have developed a jointly funded school sector decarbonisation pathfinder programme. It is administered by the Planning and Building Unit in my Department and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in partnership with devolved delivery support from Limerick and Clare Education Training Board, and Longford and Westmeath Education Training Board.

The general principles and approach to school selection includes; schools who comply with their annual reporting obligations to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) with respect to their annual energy usage under the Energy Monitoring and Reporting scheme and secondly schools that demonstrate a strong and holistic commitment to energy management practices through participation in the Energy in Education website portal and advice programme that is operated by the SEAI and my Department.

The programme selection also seeks to enable various cross sections of school types and sizes, energy consumption profiles and different elements of construction type and heritage/ conservation requirements where specific learnings are being targeted.

The pathfinder programme is generally delivered in line with the above considerations and not on an application basis. Schools, such as the school to which the Deputy refers, who wish to be considered should ensure that they are meeting their Energy Monitoring and Reporting requirements and also participating in the Energy in Education Programme.

This Pathfinder programme is paving the way for, and informing, a much larger national decarbonisation school sector programme.

The pathfinder programme is a great example of collaboration ensuring the deployment of new design approaches and technologies are introduced to the school sector on an evidence-based approach. This programme continues to assist my Department to explore options and test various solutions for decarbonised energy efficiency solutions in our broad range of school building types.

It is facilitating research on a range of typical retrofit options for schools, which will be tried and tested. It is providing valuable development information for a solution driven delivery strategy which will be founded on a solid evidence base that has proven the robustness and scalability of renewable solutions within the school sector.

Each school undergoes a comprehensive assessment to ensure that the measures are suitable for that school and will deliver value to both the school and learnings for the national retrofit programme.

The works typically involves upgrades to the building fabric including wall and roof insulation, doors and windows, air tightness improvements, LED lighting and heating upgrades as well as renewable technologies.

This pathfinder programme has completed work to date in 56 schools across Ireland with 26 schools ongoing at various stages of the process.

A Building Energy Rating (BER) of B is the targeted energy rating for all schools included in the programme.