Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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189. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a decision will be made in respect of an application for additional school accommodation devolved project submitted by a school (details supplied) in April 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39955/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school referred to by the Deputy was approved to enter the Department’s pipeline of school buildings, in 2021, for a project to provide 2 SET rooms and 1 general classroom. The responsibility for delivery of the project has been devolved to the school authority. The project in question was approved through its initial architectural design stage following a review by my department’s professional and technical officials and subsequently progressed to planning.

The project is currently at Stage 2b (post planning) and the school has submitted a report for this stage. The project is currently being reviewed from both a technical and cost perspective in accordance with the requirements of the Public Spending Code. All projects, including this one, will undergo the necessary due diligence outlined in the public Infrastructure Guidelines. Managing timing, scope, and cost is crucial to staying within budgetary limits for the overall program. Department's officials will be in contact with the school when this review has been completed to advise on next steps.

There is an overall pipeline of some 1300 projects across the school system. The 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.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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190. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a decision will be made in respect of an application for additional school accommodation submitted by a school (details supplied) in April 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39956/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm that my Department is in receipt of an application, under the Additional School Accommodation scheme, from the school in question, for both mainstream and special education classrooms.

The purpose of the Additional School Accommodation scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation or by other schools in the area.

The consideration of the accommodation requirements for the school in question forms part of the Planning and Building Unit’s overall assessment of its work programme and priorities in the context of available capital funding.

The provision of required school places, including for children with special educational needs, is a priority for my Department. My officials are working to ensure that there is sufficient provision to meet the school place needs in the school in question and the wider area for 2024/25 and future years.

In the context of making the most effective use of our capital allocation, and mindful of climate action goals, we are working to make sure that all school accommodation capacity is being maximised. We are looking at how each individual school's accommodation can be best utilised and at capacity across schools in each school planning area.

The Department has a significant modular accommodation programme in place to assist schools in the provision of additional capacity, including in respect of facilitating the establishment of special classes.

This programme involves the use of Project Management supports which is designed to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and help ease the administrative workload for school authorities in relation to the management and delivery of projects.

The use of the Department’s Modular Accommodation Framework also assists in ensuring lead in periods for procurement of modular accommodation are minimised to the greatest extent possible. To date, this has worked very well in the education sector and has seen delivery of large scale, high quality modular accommodation to meet the needs of children, particularly those with special educational needs.

This application is currently under consideration. When a final decision has been reached it will be communicated by my Department to the school authorities.