I have received notice from the Minister of Education that he wishes to make a statement. I remind the Assembly of the convention that Members wishing to ask a question should be in the Chamber to hear the Minister's statement in its entirety. For obvious reasons, this practice was eased when social distancing was in place in the Chamber, but it now applies again.

Before I call the Minister, I also remind Members that they must be concise in asking their questions. This is not an opportunity for debate, and long introductions will not be allowed. I also remind Ministers to be concise in their answers. I do not want to hear a lot of waffle.

Before I make the statement, I want to associate myself with the remarks by the Member for North Antrim in respect of the principal of Dalriada School, Mr Tom Skelton. Since Mr Skelton's sudden passing, I have heard many tributes to him and learned of the very high esteem in which he was held in the community. I was in Ballymoney on Saturday. I look after Dromore Ladies Hockey Club. We were playing Ballymoney, and they asked for a minute's silence to be held. I took part in that as a mark of respect and in tribute to him within that community. I extend my sympathy to the family on that sudden passing and thank the Member for raising it.

Today, I am setting out an ambitious vision for school facilities across Northern Ireland. I believe that there can be no greater investment in our future than investment in education. Children across Northern Ireland have the right to be educated in schools that are comfortable and safe, of good quality and properly designed and resourced to support their learning. Over the next decade, we need to transform our school buildings so that they are truly fit for the future and can provide the best possible education experience for our young people. However, this will require a significant step change in the level of capital investment and in the pace and scale of delivery. The willingness of the Executive to fund such a programme will be an acid test of their commitment to invest in the future of our most valuable resource.

The facts are incontrovertible. International research is clear that the learning environment can impact positively on teaching approaches, health and well-being and student outcomes. We know that being taught in school buildings that are in poor condition has an adverse effect on attainment, motivation and enthusiasm and, most importantly, restricts the delivery of a modern school curriculum. Our teachers cannot foster the skills that our young people need for the 21st century in crumbling buildings with poor facilities that were designed and built 60, 70 or 80-plus years ago. Our children need schools with specialist facilities to allow access to a modern curriculum that includes digital skills, technology, science and a wide range of practical subjects, from PE and drama to home economics and beyond.

To support our young people to develop a love of sport and exercise and to combat societal issues like childhood obesity, we need not just sports halls but good-quality pitches. For many children, school is their only opportunity to play outside safely. Promoting high-quality play for our youngest learners requires investment in outdoor equipment and facilities.

The recent and rapid growth in the number of children with special educational needs (SEN) requires the largest increase in school capacity for two generations. The number of pupils with statements of special educational needs has increased from 19,000 in 2019 to just over 24,000 pupils currently. That is 5,000 additional children who require placements. To meet that demand, we need to more than double special educational needs places over the coming years. With the support of the Executive, I am committed to delivering on that ambition.

If we seize the opportunity now, we have the opportunity to transform our school estate. Working together, we have the opportunity to demonstrate to people across Northern Ireland what can be achieved, but, to do that, we must not just tell them but show them through our spending that we are investing in the future of our children.

Our young people are our promise. We must show them that we are committed to delivering a modern, fit-for-purpose education system that truly meets the needs of our society and our pupils in the 21st century. We have inherited a difficult situation. In recent years, Education capital budgets have stood still, while construction costs have spiralled by over 30%. High inflation in construction prices has significantly eroded the Department's spending power, so that the current year's capital budget for Education has been wholly insufficient to meet even the most inescapable needs.

We have an ageing and dispersed estate of over 1,100 schools with rapidly escalating maintenance needs due to historic underinvestment. The consequences of a 15-year backlog in planned maintenance across the schools estate are now being felt acutely. Many mid-20th-century schools have reached the end of their shelf life and are, quite simply, no longer fit for purpose. Every day, departmental officials receive unprecedented emergency requests to replace boilers, heating and electrical and other vital materials, such as canteen equipment to provide school dinners. Those works are required to simply keep schools open.

Last week, one of my first visits as Minister was to Glenwood Primary School on the Shankill Road. The school does fantastic work in challenging circumstances. However, crumbling wall ties in the ageing buildings have presented an imminent risk of collapse and require emergency works to ensure that the children and teachers are safe. That type of problem is repeated in countless schools across Northern Ireland.

The large and unprecedented growth in the number of children with complex special educational needs has placed an unsustainable pressure on my Department's capital budget and overtaken all previous planning assumptions, yet not a single additional pound of capital funding has been provided to my Department for additional special needs placements. Instead, this year, the education sector faced an 8% reduction in its executive capital funding. Over half the Education capital budget was spent on SEN placements and emergency and statutory works.

The Assembly must be clear.: education cannot continue with current levels of capital funding. We are at risk even in the most basic requirements to keep schools open, keep children safe and provide places for our most vulnerable learners. Substantial additional investment is therefore urgently required, and I will make the case for sustained capital investment in our education infrastructure. I am conscious of the competing public expenditure pressures across government, but what is more important than the future of our children? I want to maximise the bang for the buck of every pound spent. I want to signal a new approach to investment in our schools. I want to end the game of winners and losers, where there are great facilities and opportunities for some but where the majority make do and mend. Let me be clear about this: that approach is not acceptable to me, and it is going to change.

My officials have submitted funding bids of £528 million to the Department of Finance to meet Education capital needs next year. As an absolute minimum, I will require an additional £100 million of capital above the draft Budget allocation to meet pressures in regard to special educational needs placements. That will provide essential schools for our most vulnerable children. Without it, we will not just stand still but may fall backwards. That will be an important first step. However, additional investment will need to be sustained and, indeed, increased over the next decade in order to build two new special schools, expand the existing special school sector and provide many hundreds of specialist units in mainstream schools.

Good planning and sound investment decisions require certainty and stability around future funding levels. Across my Department's capital programmes, in every constituency and school sector, there is a wide range of much-needed investment projects that urgently need to be delivered. There is not a moment to lose. That is why, to begin the process, I have instructed my officials to lift the pause that was imposed, in the absence of a Minister, on a number of new-build projects for schools in the worst conditions that were announced by my predecessor. That will ensure a pipeline of investment for future years.

I will shortly bring to the Executive proposals for investment in the Strule Shared Education Campus in Omagh. That visionary and unique campus will bring together six schools and over 4,000 children on a cross-community basis on a shared site. It will be a regional and international exemplar of shared education. My officials are finalising work on the full business case, and a potential contractor is in place. However, without ring-fenced additional investment, this innovative project, which will transform education provision for all the children of Omagh, may not be able to proceed. We should recall that the UK Government's £3·3 billion funding package for the Executive includes £150 million of the Fresh Start capital funding that was previously ring-fenced for shared and integrated capital projects. I am clear that, if they are serious about delivering the project, the Executive need to recommit that funding to the education sector as a matter of the utmost urgency.

As I visit schools and meet principals over the coming weeks, I will talk to them about the types of capital investment that will make a real difference to children's learning. It is not necessarily all about large new buildings. Instead, I want to bring forward a greater range of parallel streams of investment to improve classrooms, outdoor spaces, sports facilities and, above all, curriculum-led projects to support teaching and learning, so that every child feels the benefits of the investment that we make. High-impact and relatively low-cost projects to create effective outdoor learning environments or bespoke well-being spaces can make a lasting improvement to everyday life in a school. I have therefore commissioned my officials to develop, as a matter of priority, a capital investment strategy for education that sets out a compelling vision for a responsive, agile and innovative programme of capital investment that is clearly aligned to wider education and Executive policy.

Capital investment of varying scope and scale will be a key driver of innovation across the education system, capital investment to reshape education provision, support the improvement of the quality of learning outcomes, tackle disadvantage and promote health and well-being. We must remember that schools offer opportunities for new and better facilities that can be used by all local people. That has the most profound benefits in our disadvantaged communities. Investment in the schools estate can embed a wider, place-based approach to improve local outcomes.

I hope to work collaboratively across government to utilise schools to coordinate and integrate local services to support communities. I want our schools to be a central focus of their community and the community to be part of the school. That approach will tackle the cycle of multigenerational disadvantage. The new and ambitious investment strategy for education will make a key contribution to a wider Executive programme of well-targeted capital investment to boost employment, support economic recovery and generate regional growth.

Our education system has reached a critical juncture. This is a moment of decision and a moment of truth. On one path, there is a real danger of our children being left behind in facilities from a previous century in damp, mouldy classrooms; our most vulnerable learners being without the equipment to meet their most basic needs; and demoralised teachers in decrepit, unfit buildings. On the other hand, I offer the vision of an education system in which every child benefits from improved facilities and is educated in a high-quality learning environment by motivated teachers with the facilities and resources to deliver a modern curriculum.

If we are to meet our children's expectations, we must invest in our school buildings as a key part of the Executive’s long-term economic plan. That is not a goal or ambition that I can deliver on my own. That is why I ask Members to support me here and at the Executive table in prioritising investment in the future of our society in order to build an education estate that is worthy of our children, our excellent teachers and our ambitions for a prosperous and dynamic Northern Ireland.

I commend the statement to the House.

I congratulate the Minister on his new post and wish him well with the increased challenges in the Department. I also thank him for his recommitment to Strule, which will come as a relief to the people of Omagh.

I am sure that the Minister is aware that his Department has the worst track record for special educational needs and for delivering projects within a reasonable time frame. That contributes, as, I am sure, he will agree, significantly to the escalation of costs and poor value for public money. Will the Minister tell the Assembly how long it will take to present the strategy report to the House and how he plans to get the additional resources that he proposes to reduce the time it takes to get capital build programmes delivered?

I thank the Member for his kind remarks on my position as Education Minister. I reassure him that everything I am doing at the Department is to act with the required urgency. That is why I have commissioned the capital investment strategy now. In my statement, I outlined the areas that the strategy needs to address. Officials clearly understand the urgency with which I want to take this forward.

The Member is right to highlight the failure to deliver projects, the budget that is required and the underfunding of the education system. That is why I have put forward a very ambitious capital bid to the Department of Finance, which will be for the wider Executive to consider in agreeing their future Budget. I am pleased that the Member agrees with me on that. I look forward to continued support from him as we make the case for investing in our education system.

I thank the Minister for his statement and welcome the fact that he has come to the Chamber so quickly and so early with his plans. I look forward to working with him to ensure that we deliver on the huge capital challenges and the challenges across the board in education.

I welcome the particular reference to SEN and the need for investment in our SEN transformation programme and SEN places. Will the Minister provide more detail on how he will ensure that any additional capital allocation received for SEN is delivered to ensure that the required places in both mainstream and special settings are in place for September 2024 for our SEN children?

I thank the Member for the question and wish him well in his role as Chairman of the Education Committee. I look forward to working with him in that capacity. I know that it will be constructive, but I am sure that it will also be challenging. I would not expect anything less from the Chairman of the Committee.

The Member rightly highlights special educational needs. That is where, in this financial year, the Department's focus has been in addressing the urgency to support placements in mainstream schools but also in special schools, of which we have 39 in Northern Ireland, in order to accommodate the people who need them. There is a focus on that. In my statement, I highlighted the fact that, in the next financial year, the absolute minimum that I need for special educational need capital spend will be in the region of £100 million. In addition to all of that, I need to be able to take forward major capital projects, deal with the school enhancement programme and ICT; the list goes on. Special educational needs is a priority for the Department, however, and a priority for me as Minister to take forward as a matter of urgency so that we can meet the needs that have been flagged to me. As we approach 1 September, it is critical that we provide support for every child to get the placement that they need.

I welcome the Minister to his role and look forward to working closely with him. I was disappointed, however, that he did not mention Irish-medium education in his statement. There are three Gaelscoileanna

[Translation: Irish-medium schools]

in my constituency where children are being taught in Portakabins each day. That is the case for 60% of Irish-medium education across the North.

I ask the Minister, first, will he come to my constituency and visit some of those Gaelscoileanna, as his predecessor did? Secondly, what will he do to ensure that Irish-medium education is prioritised?

I thank the Member for his question. I will just push back slightly on the Member, as I did not mention the controlled sector or the Catholic maintained sector either. I highlighted special educational needs. My statement refers to the entirety of our education system. Everybody within that, as I have already said on the record, will be treated fairly and equitably, irrespective of which sector they come from, in the education system. I have been inundated with requests to visit schools, but if the Member wishes to invite me to visit schools in his constituency, I will be more than happy, as I put together a schools visit programme, to facilitate the Member in his area.

I thank the Minister for a frank and honest assessment in his statement. Our education estate is quite literally creaking at the seams, with many schools falling into dire need in my constituency. I want to highlight, in particular, Portadown College. There are broken single-glazed windows, cracked walls and poor disability access. Surely that is not acceptable in today's society. Will the Minister work with me and the senior leadership team and governors of Portadown College to ensure that they can continue on their journey to much-needed, much-deserved, modern, 21st-century facilities?

I will just take my place, Mr Speaker. I thank the Member for that question and commend him for the way in which he has championed the education sector in his constituency of Upper Bann. On my first day in post, he engaged with me in respect of Portadown College and highlighted the need for investment in it. I appreciate that other Members undoubtedly will have a particular interest in their area and will raise that, but, in the context of the statement, the Member is right to identify the issue. I have already outlined that I intend to bring proposals to the Executive to seek significant additional capital for the next financial year and future years. That is why, in this context, it is important that we ensure a flow of projects into the early stages of planning and design.

I have asked my officials to take steps to commence the procurement of integrated consultant teams for seven of the highest-ranked new-build projects that were announced by my predecessor, Michelle McIlveen. Those projects had been paused due to the extremely difficult budget, but they will now progress in that planning stage. The seven projects are: Carrickfergus Academy; Loreto College, Coleraine; Dromore High School; Edmund Rice College, Newtownabbey; Portadown College; Mercy College Belfast; and Malone Integrated College, Belfast.

I welcome the Minister's statement. I particularly welcome the fact that he will lift that pause, as a number of schools in my area have been paused that are already in contract.

In relation to special educational needs, I do not need to say it, as he has already outlined the challenges that we have, but I ask the Minister to consider coming to Sperrinview Special School. It is an excellent school that provides excellent services for the children who can get into it, but, at this time, the school cannot accommodate all the children who want to go there. I would appreciate an update from him on his plans around Sperrinview.

I thank the Member for the question. I have worked with the Member constructively before in different capacities, and I look forward to doing so again. The Member highlights the issue in respect of Sperrinview. Obviously, I have addressed the wider context of the need to invest in our special schools but also in our mainstream schools and the need to make sure that we have placements there. I am more than happy to engage with the Member in respect of her constituency.

I thank the Minister for his statement and congratulate him on his appointment. In my constituency of North Down alone, quite a number of schools, including Crawfordsburn Primary School, Priory Integrated College, Holywood Primary School and Bangor Central Integrated Primary School, have all had plans in place for many years for new builds and are in real need of investment. Will the Minister assure the House that he will make every effort to ensure that those schools will not be forgotten?

I thank the Member for the question and for very quickly inviting me to Crawfordsburn Primary School. The planning is under way for that visit to take place. He highlighted a number of other schools. That is why I am making the case for capital investment: Members will all have a wide range of schools. From 2012, of the 102 schools identified for major capital projects, only 35 have been completed. So, over 70 schools have been announced for major capital projects, and we are still waiting for construction to commence. They are at various stages in the planning process that they must go through before they can get to the point of construction.

That is why the capital bid that I am making is ambitious. It is a capital project that will extend way beyond the next 10 years in its delivery, but it is important that we have the pipeline of potential schools ready so that, should capital become available, construction can commence. That is why I am unpausing the process for the seven schools that I have identified to allow them to continue to get to the point where they are shovel ready, subject to the appropriate finance being available.

Thank you to the Minister for his statement. I congratulate him on his appointment and welcome the fact that his first visit was to Rathmore Grammar School in my constituency. I also welcome the mention of Malone Integrated College. Will the Minister provide an update on the proposed scale of capital investment that will be required in our nursery estate to deliver the standardisation of the preschool education programme?

I thank the Member for her best wishes. I look forward to working with her on the Education Committee, if I am right about her appointment to that.

Obviously, the investment in our capital estate includes post-primary, primary and nursery provision. I highlighted that we have 1,100 schools across the estate in Northern Ireland. They all need investment, some more than others, and that is why the capital investment strategy that I have commissioned will look at the needs right across our estate. That will be important as we look to the childcare strategy, which we will get to later today in the Assembly's business. If everybody moves towards having twenty-two and a half hours of provision, and we level up in that respect, we need to ensure that the capacity exists to deliver on that.

The Member joins the dots in respect of how important it is to have the appropriate capital invested in our estate in order to deliver other objectives, including a childcare strategy, that we, as an Executive, will require.

I wish the Minister all the best in his new role, and welcome his recognition of the importance of the education of children and young people with special educational needs. In meeting those needs, has an analysis been carried out as to where any new special schools are likely to be needed?

I thank the Member for his best wishes. I mentioned in the statement the need to take forward two new special schools, but when it comes to providing additional capacity in the 39 schools that are there, that is an ongoing piece of work as to what is necessary. Also, for those who require special provision in mainstream establishments, it is critical that schools get the support that they need in order to provide children with special needs access to mainstream education. That is all part of the work that I will be taking forward in the Department.

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and look forward to working with him over the course of the mandate. I also thank him for his statement, especially the part about the removal of Loreto College from the pause list, which is welcome news for my constituency. However, I would like to ask about the future schools merger in Coleraine between North Coast Integrated College, Coleraine College and Dunluce School. The last correspondence that I received from a Minister, quite some time ago, stated that the new school would be on-site by September 2026.

I thank the Member for his question. I undertake to write to him to provide the necessary detail to give him a fulsome answer.

I congratulate my neighbour and Lagan Valley colleague on attaining the role of Minister of Education. It is one of the most important Ministries to hold. I thank him for his verbal commitment today to special education, and to special schools in particular. Will he put visits to Fleming Fulton School and Harberton Special School in his diary?

I turn to the subject of the statement: sustainable investment in education infrastructure. The most important infrastructure that we have in our schools is our pupils, followed by our teachers and support staff. Will the Minister take the opportunity to update us on the pay negotiations for classroom assistants and drivers, given that, if children do not have support in schools, it will not matter how much we put into the quality of the buildings?

I thank the Member — my friend — for his best wishes in taking on the role. I will certainly avail myself of his expertise in special needs in particular, and I look forward to working with him.

The Member rightly raises the issue of ensuring that the right infrastructure is in place to allow our teachers and support staff the right environment in which to be able to deliver their work. That hit close to home when I visited Glenwood Primary School on the Shankill Road last week. I was appalled at the conditions in which members of the teaching profession and classroom assistants there are having to deliver education. The conditions in which they have to operate are beyond those in the Third World, yet they are delivering excellent education. They need much more support, however. Particularly for communities that come from such disadvantage, there has to be a real focus on supporting them to be able to deliver.

The Member asked me about the pay and conditions issue. I have already spoken publicly about the need to resolve that. I can confirm that I will be meeting the trade union representatives tomorrow morning in Lisburn.

I also congratulate the Minister and wish him good luck throughout his term of appointment. I welcome his commitment to having excellent facilities for children.

He mentioned the large number of schools with infrastructure projects in the pipeline. One of those is Mary Queen of Peace Primary School in Glenravel. A couple of generations of primary-school children have already passed through it without there being a new build. Can the Minister give a commitment today to parents and children in Glenravel that they will soon see development at Mary Queen of Peace? I invite him to the area to meet the board of governors and pupils.

I thank the Member for his kind remarks. I am more than happy to engage with him on constituency matters. I will write to the Member about the school that he highlighted.

There are schools on the list to be delivered. I referred to Glenwood on the Shankill as being one of them. Subject to finance being made available, it is at a point at which we could commence construction on-site within the next financial year. The seven schools that I have identified are at a much earlier stage in the process. That allows them to move into the stream of work. A number of years down the road, and, again, subject to finance, they will be at the point of being able to move on-site. There are other schools, should the Executive provide me with the finance that is needed, on which work can be commenced within the next financial year. I do not know the details of the school that the Member mentioned, but I will provide him with a written update.

I also congratulate my constituency colleague and friend — hopefully, we are still friends — Paul Givan on his elevation to the post of Education Minister.

I desperately want to know whether the abandoned former Dromore Central Primary School site forms part of his vision, given that that school has long been earmarked for use for special educational needs.

I thank the Member for her best wishes. I am sure that we will continue to be friends as she holds my feet to the fire. We will continue to have not just a professional relationship but that friendship, and I wish her well in her role.

She rightly raises the issue of Dromore Central Primary School, which is a derelict site. I have asked for an update on all the derelict facilities across the education estate. Dromore is one example, but there are others, not just in Lagan Valley but in every Member's constituency, that one could point to as having facilities that are derelict and no longer in use. What purpose are they therefore serving?

That may no longer be in the education sphere, but, for Dromore Central Primary School, the Member highlighted what the Education Authority's (EA) view is on special needs provision. When it comes to how to meet the needs around special educational needs in the future, I will want to look at whether there is a role that we can advance in respect of Dromore.

I congratulate Paul Givan on his appointment as Education Minister. I know that he will be hard-working and enthusiastic in the role. I particularly welcome the mention of his visit to Glenwood Primary School on the Shankill Road last week. My party colleagues and I have been lobbying for many years to bring forward the major capital investment that is needed there. If funding for such major works is made available, what criteria will be used to prioritise those major capital investments?

I thank the Member for his best wishes and his question. Obviously, when it comes to taking forward projects and entering that construction phase, it is all on the basis of need. That is ultimately the criterion that we will use to advance projects.

The Glenwood project was announced in 2012, I think, maybe by someone opposite who was Minister at the time. I walked around the school, and I saw single pane windows, condensation on every window, mouldy walls and crumbling plaster; indeed, I saw plaster that had been put over plaster and was falling down. I saw evidence of all that. Water was leaking through the roof into two buckets in a corridor. It is wholly inadequate and grossly unfair for the children of that community and the teaching profession to have to operate in that environment. The need for a new build was recognised over 10 years ago, and yet we have still not been able to enter the construction phase. Subject to finance being made available, we are at the point in that scheme at which it could be taken forward in the next financial year.

The challenge for me — this is why I am making the statement — is to outline the Department of Education's significant capital requirements. I can take forward schemes, such as the one in Glenwood and other schools that Members raised, only if I receive suitable resources to do so. I am up for doing that. I say this to my colleagues in the Chamber and in the Executive: give me the problem of being able to deal with hundreds of millions of pounds in addition to what we have been able to handle before, and I will deal with that challenge, but do not give me an allocation that fails to recognise the need that exists in the education estate. That will be a dereliction of our responsibility to the next generation. They are the future, and I am committed to delivering for them.

I, too, congratulate the Minister on his new position and thank him for his statement, specifically the emphasis on special educational needs and the update on Loreto College Coleraine.

In your statement, Minister, you touched on the fact that our young people are our promise and we must meet their most basis needs: I agree with that. I am mindful that one in 10 children in Northern Ireland experiences food poverty. Has your Department considered the huge impact that hunger can have on learning, and what will it do to ensure that every child has an equal right to and support in achieving academic success?

I thank the Member for her best wishes and her question. I have already been discussing in my Department the issue of how to support people who need that additional support. I have been asking questions about how we can do that and about the best way that we can do that to make sure that it is effective. A report will be provided to me on that issue and how we can take it forward, as well as recognising the financial constraints in the Executive around how we can do that. The Member is right to raise that issue. I am already considering it, and I have commissioned reports that will be provided to me in respect of that matter.

Good luck in the next couple of years. I will follow on from some of the other points and from what was in the statement about the increase in the number of those being assessed for special educational needs from19,000 to 24,000. We know that that trajectory is likely to climb over the foreseeable future. I am keen to get more analysis on special educational needs and what the provision that is needed looks like.

I am also keen to understand how you will work across Departments and with councils and others on the local development plans that are being delivered. What will the school estate and the investment programme that runs alongside it look like in the next 10 and 20 years?

On the Irish-medium sector, I would like an update on Scoil an Droichid in South Belfast. We know that, at the moment, special educational needs have a disproportionate impact in Irish-medium education, and I know that the proposed new build for Scoil an Droichid on the Ormeau Road will provide additional SEN units. Again, I am keen to get an update on that.

On your approach to poverty and deprivation, I am keen on the work done between the Shankill and Market communities in Belfast and Queen's University. I call on you to visit those projects as well.

I thank the Member for her comments. She raises a number of issues, and I will take the last one first. I will give her a detailed response on that by way of a written reply.

Being better sighted by working with other Departments to identify children who emerge with special educational needs is important. Last year, there seemed to be a lack of awareness of what would be required. I have already been asking the question: how did that arise? Surely, there would have been a way to identify children who need that support within the education system and outside it. Health workers will also have been aware of children who may require that support. Therefore, I am asking why what happened last year was the case. Rather than us being reactive around such issues, it is about being proactive and identifying at an early stage the need that exists, and we then need to plan how we will meet that. At the moment, we are unable to meet the need that is there. We need to get to the point where we can meet the need but then also get on the front foot so that we are much more prepared. That is why part of the capital bid around special education is to make sure that we can create the necessary capacity to do that.

In respect of what opportunities there are, particularly, for example, with local government, the Member is right. We can all point to schemes in our constituencies where there is a partnership arrangement between the Education Authority and local government through shared facilities. I have them in my constituency, and I am sure that others will be able to highlight similar schemes. Therefore, as part of the planning process and area planning, there is an opportunity, which I certainly want the Department of Education to engage in, to ask, "Is this a shared facility that can be used not just by Education but by other Departments?". Obviously, we need to make sure that a framework exists to do that. It may be that, in developing schemes, we can also find a way to incentivise that kind of partnership, because it makes better sense to utilise the collective resources that are available for the wider community.

I thank the Minister for his statement and for his proactive vision. I welcome and am delighted that we will now see progress on the much-needed Carrickfergus Academy new build, which was locked out for some time. Will the Minister detail when he believes that major capital build will progress and give a projected outline for delivery?

I thank the Member for her remarks and for rightly championing her constituency of East Antrim and the need for that school to progress. I will write to each of those schools later this afternoon about the next phase of the project. That is to allow the integrated consultancy team to be put in place, which then can take forward the various processes that are necessary to get a school to the stage at which, subject to finance, we can enter into contracts and construction can commence. It will take a number of years before we can get to that stage, but it is important for me that they are available and that they come online so that, when I make the case for the necessary capital budget, if it is delivered, we are able to be shovel-ready for those projects. That is the basis on which I will proceed for those schools.

We have 10 or 11 Members who want to ask questions in the next 10 minutes, so you will need to be succinct.

I thank the Minister for his statement, and I congratulate him on taking up the role of Minister of Education.

Teachers in my constituency of North Down and across Northern Ireland do an absolutely fantastic job of educating children and young people and shaping their futures. As referenced in the statement, however, all too often, they do so in buildings that are unfit for use, inadequate, damp and crumbling and even unsafe.

Can we have a question, please, Ms Egan?

How many schools are in need of emergency maintenance? Will the plans that the Minister laid out in his statement address the backlog?

I thank the Member for her question. That is exactly why I am making the case for an increased capital budget. The Department has been focused almost entirely on urgent repairs and the special educational needs provision that needs to exist, and, therefore, the backlog in routine maintenance has continued to increase and increase to the point that so many schools are in a bad state of repair and only emergency repairs for health and safety reasons can be carried out. Hence, there is the need to support my capital bid to the Department of Finance. I welcome the Member's support for that. She highlights the maintenance issues that need to be addressed. I can address those only when I get support from the wider Executive to give me the budget that allows me to do it.

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. In March 2022, your predecessor, Minister McIlveen, announced a £14 million investment in Dean Maguirc College in Carrickmore. That is one of the 28 schools that are now paused, and, unfortunately, it is not among the seven that you listed today. What are the next steps for those schools, and is there any indicative timeline for moving forward with the investment?

I thank the Member for raising that issue. At present, the first tranche of seven projects will be sufficient to begin the flow of projects into early planning. Should I obtain additional funding for next year, I will review the position of the other projects that were announced in 2022. I am aware that Dean Maguirc College in Carrickmore scored well on the prioritised list of the schools that were announced in 2022. However, due to ongoing discussions on the agreement of a future approved enrolment for the school, it was agreed with the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) that the project would not progress to procurement until those matters were resolved.

I wish you well in your new post, Mr Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his statement and wish him well in his new role.

Will the Minister commit to intensifying efforts on the normalisation process for Markethill High School, given its consistently high enrolments and the absolute importance of a new build to address the obvious issues that are associated with the school's being unfit for purpose? The school was built in 1959 for 300 pupils and currently has 500 pupils.

I thank the Member for the question. The Member raises an issue that needs to be addressed with regard to that normalisation process, where schools have an official enrolment figure but many often operate at a much higher level. Some may be operating at a lower level. Typically, those capital development schemes are based on the official enrolment level. There has been work to normalise the figures across various schools. My officials are finalising that, with recommendations to come to me so that I can complete it.

The Member raises the issue in respect of Markethill High School. I know that it is a particular interest of the deputy First Minister, as a former pupil of the school. I know that she will support me, as, I have no doubt, will colleagues around the Executive table, to get the capital resources into the Department that will allow me to make progress on a lot of the schools estate. When I know what capital I can deal with, I will, of course, be able to consider the need that exists in other schools across the estate.

I welcome the Minister. I heard a number of Members talk about him as a friend: I am just thinking that my question might challenge that a wee bit. A number of schools are earmarked for closure. Will the Minister review those schools now that he has come into office?

The Member is aware — indeed all Members are aware — of the process that we have to go through in considering development proposals, including for school closures. The approach that needs to be taken is clearly defined. Departmental officials will bring to me, in due course and at the appropriate time, any such proposals.

The Minister mentioned the capital works programme. I draw his attention to St Macartan's Primary School in Clogher in my constituency, which has a fully passed case for a new hall. Currently, students cannot all sit down together for a meal, and there are no activities. Support staff are working in unsafe conditions, and teachers —

I think we have the question, Mr Gildernew.

— are eating off their laps. Will the Minister work with me to ensure that that build is brought over the line?

I am happy to work with the Member who raises the issue. I said in my statement that we need to have a curriculum-led capital development project so that, where schools do not have a sports hall or need provision to deliver aspects of the curriculum, we can find a way to make provision for that. I have made a capital bid to the Department of Finance to enable me to do that.

I join others on the list of the Minister's new-found friends. I wish him well in his new role. Lots of Members' questions have been on new builds and there has been much focus on them. I was in Greystone Primary School in my constituency on Friday. It is a 1970s school with the windows falling out.

Your question, Mr Clarke?

How will the Minister prioritise those very dilapidated buildings and bring them up to standard?

I thank the Member for his question. In the statement, I indicated that there are schools that get brand-new facilities and can deliver the educational curriculum in world-class facilities, but there are others that have to make do and mend. That is not acceptable, and it needs to change. That is why I made the statement and am putting forward a capital bid of £528 million to the Department of Finance. That is hundreds of millions of pounds more than what the Department of Education has ever received, but it is absolutely necessary if we are to deliver the vision that we have for the next generation.

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. We are talking about a lot of projects of different scales, all huge and all important. The Minister rightly mentioned not just the education of our children but their health. Will the Minister prioritise projects that ensure that our schools are warm, dry and safe for our young people?

The Department has now had to put its resource into those most basic needs that the Member for Foyle raises. We need to move beyond the point of putting sticking plasters over sticking plasters when it comes to capital spend. I trust that Members will continue to support me in securing the necessary resources from the Department of Finance.

I congratulate the Minister on his new position. I very much welcome that the pause has been lifted. However, I am disappointed that only seven schools have been put forward with regard to an integrated consultancy team. Two schools in my constituency, Lumen Christi College and St Brigid's College, are on the capital list, so I am sure that they will be very disappointed today. I ask the Minister to write to both schools to update them as to the exact process of prioritisation of those seven schools and, as others have requested, to inform them of the next steps.

I thank the Member for her remarks. Obviously, as the pause is lifted, the seven projects announced today are on the basis of identified need and the Department's prioritisation. I made the point earlier that, of 102 schools announced since 2012, only 35 have been completed. There are 70 schools in the same position as the two mentioned by the Member. Then, there is the totality of the capital schemes that we need to address, as I outlined in my statement. It is hugely challenging to deliver finance for what we want to deliver, but I am happy to write to the Member in respect of the specific schools that she has raised.

I am sure that the Minister will agree with me, given the inclusion of Dromore High School on his list today, that all politics is local. Turning to North Belfast, Seaview Primary School and Newtownabbey Community High School passed through the ICT process a number of years ago. The pupils, staff and parents deserve to have fit-for-purpose facilities. Will the Minister ensure that his new approach can enable those schemes to be delivered?

I thank the Member for his comments. He highlights two schools in his constituency that are at a much more advanced state of readiness. In the event of capital being made available, further progress can be made to take those schemes forward. He is right, and I know that the Speaker campaigned for Dromore High School for a long time. A new build is very much needed, and today's announcement allows an ICT team to be put in place to continue the progress of planning towards it. I have outlined the capital pressures, and we need to bear that in mind when it comes to expectations, but I have outlined the context in which those decisions have been taken and the capital needs that exist.

I add my congratulations to the Minister on his new role and wish him all the best in the time ahead. I welcome the Minister's commitment to the Strule shared education campus in Omagh and his intention to bring forward investment proposals. Can he offer some kind of timeline for when he plans to bring forward those proposals?

I thank the Member for her remarks and her question. In my statement, I outlined my views on Strule and the opportunity in respect of it. Moneys that were ring-fenced for Fresh Start — £150 million towards shared and integrated education — are no longer ring-fenced. The £3·3 billion that the UK Government announced rolled in the moneys that were part of Fresh Start. That is no longer ring-fenced, and I need to make the case — I will do so urgently to the Executive — that funding needs to be approved to allow a full business case that will provide us with the costs and benefits associated with it. That process will be carried out to allow a decision to be taken to go into contractual arrangements. We have a contractor in place, and I will be making the case to the Executive that what was previously ring-fenced for shared and integrated education needs to be reinstated as a matter of urgency for my Department. This impacts not just on Strule but on other shared and integrated education programmes that had been part of the original £500 million that had been announced by the NIO.

I welcome the Minister's statement and wish him well in his new post. He mentioned the Strule shared education campus. Over the past number of years, that project has been fraught with numerous difficulties, not least those of a financial nature due to the funding uncertainty. In light of that, and of the business case being finalised, can he give any guidance to the House that the project is good value for money?

I thank the Member for that question. On the value for money point, the full business case is being prepared, and that will evaluate all the benefits and costs of the programme in full. This project has been in planning for over 15 years, and those schools have been waiting for new accommodation throughout that time. The five schools in Omagh all have serious and significant accommodation deficiencies, and the need for investment in new facilities has been clearly established by my Department's professional advisers and across two outline business cases. Condition surveys of all five schools undertaken in June 2023 indicate that the value of backlog maintenance alone in the schools is now around £12 million. If Strule does not proceed and funding is not ring-fenced for that important programme, it will be many years before any of the schools will receive capital investment. They would be back to the beginning in respect of planning for any new accommodation. As an Executive, we will wish to honour previous commitments to those schools and to the wider Omagh community.

My thanks to the Minister for his statement. My constituency colleague Gavin Robinson MP has been engaging with him already on two SEN schools in my constituency, Mitchell House School and Greenwood House Assessment Centre. Will the Minister agree to joining us in a visit those schools to see the critical need for the upgrades that they are awaiting and to see why the investment that he is, rightly, calling for is so desperately needed for some of our most vulnerable pupils?

I thank the Member for that question. Yes, I am more than happy to engage with him and the Member of Parliament for East Belfast around the need for this additional funding because, in this wider context, both schools provide for special educational needs. That is a priority for capital spend, but significant investment is required immediately, and that needs to be sustained into the future. That is for not only planned maintenance but digital infrastructure, specialist curriculum facilities, pitches, outdoor play spaces and everyday equipment for teaching and learning, and to provide those SEN placements.

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and wish him well as the Minister of Education and youth services. On Friday, I visited a school in my constituency, Knockevin Special School. It has to operate across three separate sites because it has outgrown its accommodation. Will the Minister agree that such sites should be prioritised, given that they are operating across multiple sites? Given that the Down High School site is about to become available, will he agree that that might be a good location for a new school?

I thank the Member for his comments. He highlights the issue that I have been engaging with already, which is that, in delivering the curriculum, some pupils who do not have a sports hall for PE then have to be bussed to somewhere that can provide that and meets the needs of the curriculum. That eats up valuable time during the education day, and it also requires transport to be provided. None of that is conducive to delivering the kind of curriculum that they need. Where schools have multiple sites, that is a challenge, and that is why I am making the bid for the capital funding for our Department. We can then try to drive forward a curriculum-led development scheme.

Will the Minister address the penny-wise/pound-foolish approach of providing a new school and then refusing, over successive decades, to attend to basic maintenance? I reference the school that I know best, Moorfields Primary School. It was a new school 15 years ago, fantastic. However, all basic maintenance has since been denied until we have reached the point where, eventually, it will cost far more to put in place the repairs than if they had been dealt with as they arose.

I agree entirely with the Member for North Antrim on the point that he is making. It is indicative of the dire state that we have got ourselves into that we are unable to do this kind of planned maintenance because we literally are trying to keep schools open. Emergency repairs are now what is necessary as is providing the placements for special educational needs. On the school that the Member highlights, his point is valid, but the contrast of that school with Glenwood Primary School on the Shankill Road is like night and day when considering the fabric of the buildings and the environment in which we are trying to teach children.

I want to be able to address a planned maintenance scheme, a school enhancement programme and curriculum-led capital development as well as major capital projects and ICT upgrades. I want to be able to take forward all the issues that I have mentioned. The challenge to everybody in this House and to my Executive colleagues is to provide the resources that are necessary to meet the needs of our children and young people.

Gaelscoil an Lonnain, an excellent Gaelscoil in my constituency, is in a building that is totally unfit for purpose and has a high proportion of SEN pupils. Coláiste Feirste is oversubscribed by several hundred pupils. What assurances can the Minister give all Gaelscoileanna that he and his Department will treat them fairly when it comes to getting access to the required capital and resource funding? Gaelscoileanna have been left out of the past three capital build announcements by previous Ministers.

I made reference to this point earlier in reply to a Member for Foyle. Every school will be treated fairly and equitably for the time in which I am Minister of Education. That is the approach that I will take. The provision that is required will be based on need. The Member can be assured on the approach that I will be taking on this issue.

That concludes questions on the Minister's statement. All Members who were here for the statement were called. Two Members who were here late were called late. You might not receive that latitude in future, but, given that we are just starting again, you have been given a little latitude.