21/06/23
As was recently reported by the BBC, it has been announced that twenty-eight post-primary schools in Northern Ireland which were earmarked for new buildings have been told the process has been “paused”. The Department of Education (DE) has blamed budget pressures for the decision.
A letter from the DE to headteachers said that “it is not affordable for the department to incur consultancy spend and expend considerable staffing resource on projects which are unlikely to proceed to site for many years”.
“Procurement of consultant teams will not, therefore, proceed at this time.”
RSUA Director Ciarán Fox commented that “the pause in procurement would not only push back what is already an elongated process to get much needed modern, fit-for-purpose facilities for the schools but it also was another blow to our sector at what is already a challenging time.”
RSUA through the Construction Professionals’ Council for Northern Ireland had been liaising with the Department of Education on how to ensure the schools would meet the net-zero carbon requirements. RSUA will continue to encourage the department to address the issues surrounding net-zero carbon requirements to ensure this aspect of the project continues to progress.
