Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on the reason for the long delay in the progress of a promised new school building (details supplied); when this project is likely to move to stage 1 preliminary design; and if she will agree to an early meeting between officials in her Department and the school representatives in order to clarify the precise timescale applying to this project. [43519/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested around €5 billion in schools throughout the country. Around 950 school building projects have been completed and 350 other projects are under construction, which includes 37 new school buildings. These 350 project currently at construction involves a total state investment of over €1.5 billion.

The Department 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.

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 building project for the school referred to by the Deputy will provide a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school and accommodation for children with special educational needs as part of a shared educational campus.

It is intended that 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 Project Manager was appointed in Q3 2023 and has been progressing the tender documentation for the procurement of the multi-disciplinary design team consultants, which has now issued to tender.

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 school and their patron body informed of the progression of this campus project and will continue to liaise in relation to interim accommodation pending delivery of the permanent accommodation for the school.