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MINISTER for Education Norma Foley TD and Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications Ossian Smyth TD today launched the next phase of the school retrofitting pathfinder programme.
Up to 14 schools will be retrofitted and upgraded to a Building Energy Rating (BER) of B with renewable heating to reduce their CO2 emissions by 51 per cent.
Castleisland Community College and St. Francis Special School in Beaufort are two of the schools included in the programme.
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Education Minister Foley said the programme was helping to test solutions for reducing emissions in a broad range of different school buildings.
“I look forward to seeing up to 14 more schools around the country benefitting through the next phase of this Programme.
“It is really positive to see the results of good collaboration and teamwork and hear the great feedback from the school principals, teachers, pupils and parents whose schools have benefited from previous investments under the Pathfinder Programme.
“These benefits include improved energy performance, a more comfortable teaching and learning environment, and upgraded spaces beyond the expectations of the schools.
“It is paving the way for, and informing, a much larger schools decarbonisation programme, focusing on schools built prior to 2008, as envisaged in the National Development Plan.”
The Pathfinder Programme has already led to the retrofitting of different types of schools in 19 counties. The new phase of the programme will cover schools in the remaining seven counties in the country that had not previously featured in the pathfinder programme.
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