Minister Foley announces progression to tender stage of the ‘Project Boyne’ bundle of six large-scale school building projects

Minister for Education Norma Foley today (5 June) announced the progression of the ‘Project Boyne’ bundle of school building projects for over 5,750 students.

The six large scale projects are being delivered across schools in counties Carlow, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow by the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) on a devolved basis for the department.

The department has today issued authorisation to complete the remaining work on the preparation of tender documents required for public procurement of building contractors for all six schools for the end of the year, in two lots.

These school building projects are flagship projects in their area and will provide new and modernised high-quality permanent facilities catering for over 5,750 students. This will transform the education infrastructure for these school communities both now and in the decades ahead, enabling students to benefit from purpose-built state of the art facilities.

These new school buildings will incorporate mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and renewable energy systems that include air source heat pump technologies for heating and solar panels as part of future-proofing the schools from a climate and sustainability perspective.

‘Project Boyne’ is one of six bundles of large-scale and campus school building projects that are devolved for delivery by the NDFA with the full programme catering for over 24,000 students across 10 different counties.

Construction work is progressing well on the ‘Project Nore’ bundle of seven large-scale school building projects across schools in counties Tipperary, Kilkenny, Westmeath and Kildare that is also being managed by the NDFA on behalf of the department. Today’s announcement of the ‘Project Boyne’ bundle of six schools being authorised to progress to tender will ultimately facilitate a consistent flow of projects through this Design and Build Framework that was established by the NDFA. This procurement strategy for the management of the flow of projects being delivered under this Design and Build Framework will continue for subsequent bundles of large-scale and campus projects that are currently in the project brief and design stages and managed by the NDFA on behalf of the department.

Minister Foley said:

Andrew O’Flanagan, Director, National Development Finance Agency and NewERA, commenting on the project, said:

Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested in the region of €4.8 billion in our schools throughout the country and currently has approximately €1.2 billion of school building projects under construction. This investment under Project Ireland 2040 is adding capacity and developing and upgrading school facilities across the country for the almost one million students and over 100,000 staff that learn and work in our schools every day. This is demonstrative of the strong support from Government for investment in education.

The school accommodation ‘Project Boyne’ bundle is comprised of six school projects outlined in the table below, which is devolved for delivery to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA). The NDFA, a business unit within the NTMA, provides financial advisory, procurement and project delivery services to State authorities on public infrastructure projects.

The NDFA have now been authorised to finalise the necessary tender documents required for public procurement of building contractors for the ‘Project Boyne’ bundle.

All of the 1,000 mainstream pupil school listed in the table below will include six special class facilities while one project catering for 750 mainstream pupils will include five special classes to support the integration and inclusion of students with additional needs in their local communities.