263. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Youth to clarify when the construction phase will commence for the Cork Educate Together Secondary School at Douglas Co. Cork. [66487/26]

The major school building project for Cork Educate Together Secondary School, will deliver a new 600 pupil post-primary school building and accommodation, including classrooms for children with special educational needs.

The school is assigned to my Departments Design & Build delivery programme which uses a professional external Programme Manager to progress the project through the relevant stages of architectural planning, tender, and construction.

The project is currently at Stage 3 – Tender Award Stage. The date for return of completed tenders was 27th March 2026. Tenders were then reviewed by the Programme Manager and their Multidisciplinary Technical Team. The Tender Report was recently submitted for review to my Department by the Programme Manager.

Due diligence by my Department is a critical part of the overall completion of the Stage 3 process and is essential to ensuring quality and value for money, and that projects are progressed within overall budgetary parameters.

Upon completion of the tender process, an indictive timeframe of the completion of the new school building for Cork Educate Together Secondary School would be available.

The new school building for Cork Educate Together Secondary School is one of the priority projects for my Department.

My Department will continue to keep the school and its patron body updated on progress during the tender review stage.