Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 January 2026
82. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Education and Youth if her Department will consider replacing the prefabs at a school (details supplied), given that the new campus is currently at stage 2a of the architectural design process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6981/26]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that two interim modular units were recently approved for the school referred to pending the delivery of the school's large scale major project.
The project referred to by the Deputy is part of a campus project that has been devolved for delivery to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) as part of a bundled school building programme (Project Shannon). There are three schools within this campus project including this school.
The brief for the school includes the provision of 24 mainstream classrooms and 4 SEN classrooms.
The project is currently at Stage 2a of the architectural design process. Stage 2a (the developed design stage) involves the Design Team developing the designs, fully cost planning the campus project and preparing the necessary documentation to facilitate the lodging for statutory approval to the county council as part of the Stage 2b process. The length of time a project takes to deliver depends on several factors, including scale and complexity and is subject to the time it takes to progress through the various design stages and the statutory approval process. In this context, a meeting is scheduled between my Department, the LDA and NDFA regarding this school project. The NDFA will continue to engage directly with the school authority to keep them fully informed of progress on this important project.
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 (NDP). 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 has been published. 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. .
The next tranche of projects will be finalised and published post 2027 following a stakeholder engagement process to identify the next most urgent priorities. This stakeholder engagement will be undertaken in 2026 and 2027 and will include an assessment of how well existing capacity is maximised and enrolment policies and processes are prioritising local special education provision and mainstream requirements. The Department led Energy and Condition Survey of the school estate, which will be finalised later in 2026, will provide an additional evidence base for assessing priorities.
