Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 April 2026
91. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Education and Youth to urgently review application for a tenth mainstream classroom (details supplied) given the additional high enrolments figures; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28807/26]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy that my Department is in receipt of an application for funding under the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme from the school in question. The school was issued a provisional letter of offer following their application for capital funding.
As the Deputy is aware that I have recently published the €7.55 billion NDP Sectoral Investment Plan for the Education and Youth Sectors for the period 2026 to 2030. This NDP Sectoral Plan involves a very strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard there will be a very strong special education dimension to project rollout. This allows the Department to keep a strong focus on the provision of additional capacity to cater for demographics, new housing developments and the rollout of additional special classes for children with additional needs. This approach reflects the Department’s fundamental objective of ensuring the availability of a school place for every child.
Given the general downward direction of overall enrolments in the area in which the school is located the department's focus for the assessment of such additional accommodation applications will be as follows:
• Analyse the extent to which enrolments at this school and neighbouring schools are serving the local area in the first instance. This will identify if some of the pressures on local capacity are arising from the enrolment of pupils from outside the local area where there may be other school provision opportunities available to them.
• In assessing accommodation capacity at this school and neighbouring schools, an assessment will need to be made on how best to utilise existing capacity in the context of both mainstream and SEN requirements in the local area.
The above sets the parameters for the department’s decision-making processes and this will, where necessary, involve engagement with school patrons and relevant individual schools as appropriate.
My department will continue to build on the progress made over recent years with the continued roll-out of projects on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. A department-led prioritisation process will continue over the course of 2026 and 2027 to assess and evaluate the progression of individual projects through the architectural design pipeline. This process will involve engagement with key stakeholders and individual schools. The department will further engage with patrons regarding how best to address both the school community’s immediate and longer-term requirements in order to ensure it can cater for its enrolments.
The accommodation needs at the school in question is currently being considered in the above context and my department will be in further contact with the school on this application shortly.
