Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Education to detail (i) the schools in Mid Ulster that are awaiting the beginning or completion of a new build project; and (ii) the current prioritisation ranking of works for those new school builds that are yet to begin.
Minister of Education: Currently seven major capital works projects have been announced for schools in Mid Ulster.
The status of these projects are as follows:
Edendork Primary School, Dungannon – procurement of a building contractor is in progress.
Gaelscoil Ui Neill, Coalisland – building contractor appointed and pre-construction activities ongoing.
Holy Trinity College, Cookstown – construction ongoing.
St Conor’s College, Coleraine – currently in design development.
St Patrick’s College, Maghera – currently in design development.
Sperrin Integrated College, Magherafelt, and St Pius X College, Magherafelt, were included in the 2022 Major Capital Works Programme announcement, however they are two of twenty one projects from this announcement which are currently on hold due to budget pressures.
All live projects are currently being progressed through the design stages up to the pre-construction stage. Due to budget availability projects that are ready to proceed to construction will only be permitted to do so when there is sufficient budget available.
I can assure you that I have and will continue to make the case for significant additional and sustained capital funding for my department, to permit projects to proceed to construction as soon as possible.
ENDS
Your MLA 