John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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273. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider an application under the CASWS which was uploaded in error to the emergency works portal and accepted; if the application which was submitted within the timeframe albeit to the incorrect portal will be accepted and processed as the work outlined in the application is urgent. [49723/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As you may be aware, the purpose of the Climate Action Summer Works Scheme (CASWS) is to enable individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works on a devolved basis and, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The CASWS operates on a multi-annual basis across a number of categories.

The CASWS opened for applications on the 1st May 2025 remained open for applications until 5.30pm on the 30th of June 2025 when the application window closed. Any school that logged on to the system, as late as 5:29pm would have been allowed by the system to submit their application.

A Full suite of guidance documents, details of the CASWS and how to make an application and the scheme Circular (0029/2025) for the scheme were made available to all schools details of which can be found at the below link:

www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/services/summer-works-scheme/

My Department received multiple applications during the application period and the CASWS team was on hand to advise schools on any issues they were encountering, there was no technical issue reported to the CASWS team from the school in question that prevented school from accessing and logging on to the system and submitting their application through the portal which was clearly marked “Climate Action Summer Works online submissions”.

Unfortunately, my Department cannot accept any late applications or incorrectly submitted applications. The application window, process and closing deadline was the same for all schools without exception and therefore in the interest of fairness and transparency, this deadline cannot now be changed as it would be unfair on other schools who submitted their applications on time, or those who also missed the deadline, to allow the school in question's application to be accepted.