Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 September 2024
129. Deputy Johnny Mythen asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to review a matter regarding a site purchase (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38038/24]
View answerKilkenny Carlow ETB (KCETB) is one of twelve ETBs that have project proposals that are currently being progressed under the FET College of the Future Major Projects Fund. The KCETB proposal requires that a new site is purchased to locate a flagship Further Education and Training (FET) College in Kilkenny.
As part of the preliminary business case stage of development of their proposal, KCETB have undertaken extensive work to identify suitable sites for this new FET College building and have liaised closely with the local authority, SOLAS and my department in that respect. A robust site analysis process was undertaken by the ETB, in line with the relevant Infrastructure Guidelines, and this process identified three sites as being most suitable.
While negotiations took place on the site the Deputy refers to, this site option failed to meet the relevant due diligence requirements so KCETB requested permission from my department via SOLAS to open negotiations on one of the other site options. This was recommended by SOLAS and was approved by my department. A decision to purchase a site cannot be completed until such time that all relevant due diligence requirements are met.
The Deputy will appreciate that due to commercial sensitivities associated with this acquisition process I am not in a position to make any further comment on this process at this point. However as always, I remain firmly committed to ensuring that the appropriate FET infrastructure is in place to meet the needs of our learners and staff in Kilkenny and the wider region.
