Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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392. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in Waterford that applied for funding under the 2025 Summer Works Programme. [65607/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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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 that, 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 of works.

I can confirm my department has received applications under the CASWS for 49 schools across the county of Waterford for a number of different categories of work.

It is envisaged that approvals in any given year will involve a spread of categories rather than the traditional single category at a time. This is aimed at managing market capacity and maximising value for money opportunities for school authorities.

The CASWS will operate on a multi-annual basis, the first tranche of projects for 2026 were announced on the 18th November 2025. Under this scheme, approved applications from schools that are not reached for funding or market prioritisation reasons (as above) in 2026 will qualify to be assessed for purposes of the funding available for climate action summer works in subsequent years.

Full details of the of the announcement and the list of schools approved in the first tranche, the Circular (0029/2025) for the scheme and guidance documents for schools can be found at the below link; www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/services/summer-works-scheme/.