Minister Foley confirms key milestone for 10 key flagship new school buildings being delivered under the Department’s Design & Build Programme

The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has today announced the issuing of Letters of Intent to successful contractors for Lot 6 of the Department’s Design & Build programme comprising 10 schools, including 3 campus projects, across two different bundles.

This is one of the largest bundles of new school projects undertaken to date by the Department of Education, comprising some 83,000m2 of new state-of-the-art facilities catering for almost 8,000 students including facilities for special classes.

These schools are part of the follow through of the announcement last week of €800m investment for progression of close to 90 projects to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025.

These new school buildings are flagship developments in their area and will provide new and modern facilities to help cater for growing populations due to significant rollout of housing developments.

These new school buildings will incorporate renewable systems that include heat pump technologies for heating and also solar panels. In addition, they will also incorporate Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems which represents the Department’s ongoing response to the climate action plan.

The issue of the Letters of Intent is a significant milestone in the progression of these important flagship projects. The next major milestone will be the issue of the Letters of Acceptance to the successful contractors.  This will be done following further engagement with the successful contractors in relation to their tenders for the design and construction of the new schools.  This engagement will also provide clarity on the contractor’s programme of works for the delivery of the projects and timelines.

Minister Foley said:

“It gives me great pleasure to announce the Letters of Intent for these 10 schools which are a key priority for my Department. The delivery of these projects will transform the teaching and learning environment for these school communities.  Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested around €4.5 billion in schools throughout the country. Around 800 school building projects have been completed and 300 other projects are under construction.

This level of construction rollout recognises the priority that Government puts on investment in education”