The Department of Education's announced several initiatives to ensure best practice of fire safety measures in schools.
They're being undertaken as an added precaution by the department, after consultations with stakeholders following recent concerns over fire safety in public buildings.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education says: "It is important to note that the department does not believe that there are issues regarding fire safety with schools generally, rather these measures are being taken in order to take an abundance of caution approach in this area."
The department is to appoint a fire safety expert to undertake a complete audit of all school buildings constructed by Western Building Systems (WBS).
This follows on from the identification of a number of issues about compliance by a number of schools constructed by WBS with their fire safety certificates.
The department says it doesn't have any reason to believe that there are any fire safety issues in respect of any of the other buildings built by WBS.
A tender for the appointment of fire safety consultants is set to be completed by mid-October, with the first set of reports will provided to the department by the end of the year.
The department is in the process of commissioning fire safety audits of a representative sample of up to 25 schools constructed over the last 20 years.
This audit is expected to be completed by January 2018.
The department has written to all design teams working on buildings currently under construction to remind them of responsibilities to comply with fire certificates awarded by the local authority.
It will also issue a new circular to all schools about their obligations in relation to fire safety management protocols.
A new Clerk of Works is to be appointed by the department to "provide an extra layer of checking and oversight during the construction process."
And an internal fire safety committee is being established within the department to monitor day to day interactions with schools, and the results from the various audits.
