Minister Norma Foley to visit Kilkenny later this week

Minister for Education, Norma Foley, is scheduled to visit three schools in Kilkenny this Thursday.

Minister Foley will meet with school officials at the new CBS Secondary School site as well as at Presentation Secondary School and St Canice's Primary School in Kilkenny City who have all received funding under 'Project Nore'.

The three Kilkenny schools along with four further schools in Tipperary, Westmeath and Kildare are to receive new and modernised facilities under the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) in a development costing over €250 million.

The local funding has been allocated as follows:

• CBS Kilkenny - New school building for 1,000 students including special classes
• Presentation Secondary School - New school building for 1,000 students including special classes
• St Canice's Primary School - New 24 classroom school building including special classes

The projects include special class facilities to support the integration and inclusion of students with special educational needs in their local communities and these new school buildings will incorporate renewable systems that include heat pump technologies for heating and solar panels as part of future proofing the schools from a climate perspective.

Project Nore is the first of six bundles of large school building projects that are being delivered by the NDFA, with the full programme catering for over 24,000 students across 10 different counties.

The construction of this bundle of seven school projects has been awarded to a joint venture partnership between JJ Rhatigan and Co. and ABM Design and Build Ltd.