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Minister Quinn announces details of 275 major school building projects – More than 15,000 jobs to be created over five years

March 12, 2012

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,” said Minister Quinn.

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.

“We have to ensure that every child growing up in Ireland can access a physical school place,” said the Minister.

“Our programme unveiled today means that schools and parents will be able to plan much better for their children’s education at a time when enrolments at both primary and second level are rising dramatically.”

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.

Minister Quinn said “This example of co-operation means that projects will be accelerated and co-ordinated. This shows joined up thinking between Government Departments and Agencies in order to maximise the number of projects we deliver with best value for money for the tax-payer.”

Details of the individual projects are available here:

Recent birth rate data show that 19,950 births were registered in the first quarter of 2011. This was an increase of 7.6% in the number of births registered in the corresponding quarter of 2010. The figures, published by the Central Statistics Office, represent the highest number of births registered in any quarter since the series began in 1960.  The birth data also show that 18,381 births were registered for the second quarter of 2011 and indicate a continuation of the high birth rates experienced in the last number of years.

The CSO birth rate data reinforces the Department of Education and Skills’ own projections that there will be an additional 30,850 primary school pupils requiring school places between now and 2014.

A further 14,200 pupils will need places between 2014 and 2018. Total enrolment in primary schools is expected to grow from 509,650 pupils in the last school year to 554,700 pupils in 2018. At second level, an additional 24,900 pupils will need places by 2017 with a further 40,800 pupils needing places between 2017 and 2024.  This means an overall increase of 65,700 second-level pupils by 2024.

Criteria for selection for inclusion:

  • Major school projects, including special schools, which will provide for significant additional capacity to meet demographic growth with a focus on rapidly developing areas, have been prioritised. Where a demographic demand has been identified, the need to provide for diversity in school provision has been taken into account.
  • The level of contractual commitments related to expenditure in any given year.
  • The stage of progression reached by each individual project in the architectural design process including the availability of sites in the case of new schools. In that regard, the scheduling of selected projects depends also on when such projects are technically ready to proceed to tender and construction.
  • Additional accommodation to meet demographic growth and where the project also involves replacement of temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation.

Additions to Plan:

There will be a small number of additional projects, required for demographic reasons, which will need to proceed to construction in the lifetime of the Plan but which we are not in a position to announce in the Plan at this time.  These are school projects where discussions are underway with a school concerning an extension and which have not been completed.

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