Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
485. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of school building projects delayed beyond original completion dates in 2025, as reported in her Department's capital programme. [5684/26]
View answerSince 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 along with over 4,000 small-scale improvement works to meet priority maintenance needs and advance energy efficiency and climate goal. 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. This significant investment has delivered real benefits for school communities.
Due to the substantial volume of projects involved, it is not feasible to provide a detailed list at this level in this response. However, the table below sets out expenditure and major project completions since 2020, at county level. If the Deputy requires further information on a specific project, we can assist further. Additionally, the current status of all projects, including completions, is set out under item number ten at the following link (www.gov.ie). This is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.
In July 2025, 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. Building on this 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 requirements.
In delivering Large-Scale projects and Additional School Accommodation scheme projects, the approach will be to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance, and to provide additional capacity through a targeted and prioritised rollout of projects over the 2026–2030 period to meet the most urgent needs.
My department’s 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 an area is insufficient, and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money, and meets functional requirements.
DEY Expenditure, SBP –Completed & in Construction, SWS incl. Climate Action Stats End December 2025
|
County |
Total DEY Capital Expenditure 2020-31/12/2025 (€m) |
LS/ASA/Modular Completions 2020-2025 |
School Building Projects in Construction (LS/ASA/Modular) |
Newly approved SWS incl. Climate Action for delivery in 2026 |
Smaller Scale Maintenance & Improvement projects under the Summer Works & Emergecy Works Schemes delivered 2020-2025 |
|
Carlow |
50.19 |
24 |
5 |
5 |
38 |
|
Cavan |
92.61 |
24 |
4 |
8 |
94 |
|
Clare |
155.25 |
28 |
7 |
9 |
126 |
|
Cork |
767.72 |
157 |
20 |
35 |
480 |
|
Donegal |
220.78 |
66 |
14 |
26 |
190 |
|
Dublin |
1794.95 |
244 |
64 |
53 |
787 |
|
Galway |
251.39 |
88 |
17 |
20 |
336 |
|
Kerry |
145.15 |
66 |
9 |
20 |
155 |
|
Kildare |
397.08 |
48 |
9 |
5 |
110 |
|
Kilkenny |
207.11 |
43 |
5 |
5 |
99 |
|
Laois |
144.77 |
29 |
9 |
5 |
54 |
|
Leitrim |
27.82 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
41 |
|
Limerick |
293.2 |
54 |
6 |
10 |
161 |
|
Longford |
43.36 |
15 |
2 |
3 |
56 |
|
Louth |
118.56 |
27 |
5 |
4 |
60 |
|
Mayo |
159.04 |
61 |
16 |
16 |
215 |
|
Meath |
459.49 |
61 |
14 |
10 |
88 |
|
Monaghan |
104.41 |
24 |
4 |
3 |
74 |
|
Offaly |
105.88 |
30 |
4 |
5 |
60 |
|
Roscommon |
67.84 |
28 |
8 |
8 |
93 |
|
Sligo |
71.61 |
24 |
6 |
7 |
72 |
|
Tipperary |
176.12 |
67 |
8 |
14 |
194 |
|
Waterford |
142.68 |
32 |
7 |
7 |
116 |
|
Westmeath |
174.15 |
31 |
10 |
3 |
70 |
|
Wexford |
174.6 |
58 |
7 |
8 |
138 |
|
Wicklow |
254.93 |
42 |
8 |
6 |
111 |
|
Total |
€6.6bn |
1378 |
270 |
297 |
4018 |
