Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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1928. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current status of the new Kilkenny Institute of Further Education; the amount of capital envisaged to complete the project and when he hopes to have this college open; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12343/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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In September 2024, Kilkenny Carlow Education and Training Board (ETB) submitted a Preliminary Business Case proposal for Kilkenny city under the FET College of the Future Major Projects fund.

The Approval Gate 1 assessment of the application, which determines whether "approval in principle" will be granted or not, was undertaken by the Evaluation Panel on the 16th of September 2024. The Evaluation Panel recommended that Kilkenny Carlow ETB's business case had met the required standard to progress to the next stage of the project development process: Stage 2 – Pre-Tender, Project Design, Planning and Procurement Strategy.

The project will be progressed in line with the stages set out in the Infrastructure Guidelines, and SOLAS are working with the ETB in this respect. Cost estimates for the project cannot be provided at this stage as various influencing factors, including finalised design of the building and market conditions at the time of tendering, are as yet unknown.