Aidan Farrelly
Question:455. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will provide an update regarding a school (details supplied); and the date it will progress to the next stage. [71716/25]
View answerTuesday, 16 December 2025
Questions (455)
Written answers
The major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is being delivered as part of the Department's ADAPT Programme. The Adapt Programme uses a professional external Programme Manager to co-ordinate and drive the Design Team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of Architectural Planning to Tender and Construction.
The brief for this project is to provide a new permanent school building for the school referred to by the Deputy, and this project is designed to be delivered in 2 phases; Phase 1 will deliver accommodation for 425 students and Phase 2 will deliver the remaining accommodation to provide for a Long Term Projected Enrolment of 1,000 students, at the former Magee Barracks site in Kildare.
The project is currently at Architectural Planning Stage 3 – Tender Action and Award. The tender report has recently been received by the Department and is currently under review by a multi-disciplinary team.
In July the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026-2030 under the National Development Plan. As part of this NDP allocation my department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. In relation to project rollout for Large-Scale projects and Additional School Accommodation scheme projects, the approach will be to continue to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project rollout over the course of 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.
Government departments are currently in the process of publishing their sectoral NDP Implementation Plans. The sectoral plan for the Education and Youth sector will be published next week and the first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published in January. This NDP Implementation Plan will optimise outputs from the NDP allocations, with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is insufficient, and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money, and meets functional needs.