Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 January 2026
103. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 345 of 11 June 2024, the reason there has been a delay of almost four years for the delivery of the approved extension to a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4628/26]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy, that my department is in receipt of an application for capital funding under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme from the school in question.
My department is working closely with the school authority as there is significant technical challenges with the school’s site. My department is also working with the relevant stakeholders to identify a feasible solution to meet the school’s accommodation needs.
The Department can identify opportunities to transform existing schools as part of energy retrofit projects, and the Department’s Pathfinder programme has been developing effective solutions in this regard, as we plan for a future wider rollout. The plan for working this through at national scale will be informed by the outcome of an Energy and Condition survey of all schools which is currently underway. It has already been completed across schools in five counties and the remaining counties are due for completion by mid-2026. The subsequent analysis of this significant amount of data will take some time but will help determine priorities going forward in relation to retrofit and refurbishment projects. The process may ultimately identify a requirement for the replacement of some accommodation, but this is not expected to be widespread. This overall process is particularly valuable in facilitating a proportionate assessment of a school’s accommodation upgrade needs relative to all other schools and allow an effective prioritisation of capital investment.
Since 2020, my department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan, involving the completion of almost 1,400 school building projects. In addition, repurposing and optimisation of existing accommodation capacity across the school estate has been a key enabler of timely, local provision of special class capacity in a way that supports best practice in inclusion and integration. Circa 80% of new special classes in 2025/26 are being facilitated in repurposed classroom accommodation.
Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million approved by Government has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for my department to €1.6 billion.
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.
The NDP Implementation Plan for the Education and Youth sector and the first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published by my department shortly. 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.
My department will be in further contact with the school authorities in due course.
