Details Of Major School Building Projects Announced

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., today announced details of 219 new major school building projects which will begin over the next five years as part of a €2 billion capital investment programme.

These new projects are in addition to 56 major school building projects that he already announced for 2012.

The five year plan outlines when the major projects will proceed to construction. These projects comprise:

•106 new schools at primary level

•65 large-scale extensions at primary level

•43 new schools at second level

•49 large-scale extensions at second level

•8 new special schools and extensions for 4 further special schools.

Announcing the programme, Minister Quinn said: "In line with the Programme for Government, and the Government’s Capital Investment Programme, we are prioritising investment in school buildings during these tougher economic times.

"This investment in major school building projects will create an estimated 15,000 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs over the period of the programme (an annual average of 3,000 direct and 600 indirect jobs). A total of €1500 million (€1.5 billion) will be spent on these 275 projects.

"This is very welcome news for the construction industry."

This is the first time that the Department of Education and Skills has published a five year plan for school buildings.

The Minister said that this will facilitate schools’ plans to meet local demand for places and will provide greater transparency in the operation of the school building programme.

Total enrolment is expected to grow by around 70,000 students between now and 2018 – by over 45,000 at primary level (currently 509,000 students) and 25,000 at post primary (currently 351,000). Second level enrolment is expected to continue to rise until at least 2024.

The plan will provide over 100,000 permanent school places, of which over 80,000 will be new school places. The remainder will be the replacement of temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation.

This substantial investment means that over 11% of the total school population will benefit from new permanent places delivered during 2012 – 2016.

As well as the five year plan, the DES publishes a detailed plan on an annual basis in relation to the planned expenditure on individual school projects.

Schools which have not been included in today's plan, but which were announced for initial inclusion in the building programme will still progress to final planning stages in anticipation of further funds being available to the Department.

The five year plan also includes alternative methods of delivering projects. Agencies like the Office of Public Works, the Vocational Education Committees and the National Development Finance Agency, as well as county councils are all assisting with the delivery of over 80 major school projects.

(CD/GK)