Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 November 2025
427. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Education and Youth to provide an update for the provision of a special education/autism class at a school (details supplied); the timeline for the delivery of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62772/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraA major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is being delivered as part of my Department's ADAPT Programme which uses a professional external Programme Manager to co-ordinate and drive the Integrated Project Team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of Architectural Planning, to Tender and Construction.
This ADAPT 4 Programme – Programme Innovate will be led by Integrated Project Teams (IPT’s), consisting of highly skilled and experienced design professionals, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors and various other consultants to deliver the projects.
The brief for the project is the delivery of a new 8 classroom primary school, with accommodation and 2 classrooms for children with special educational needs at Swords, Co Dublin.
This project is at an early stage of architectural planning - stage 1 - where the IPT carry out site surveys and initial sketch schemes are prepared. The stage 1 report is anticipated to be received by my Department in late Quarter 4 of 2025, with a meeting of stakeholders to be arranged upon receipt and review of the report.
It is not possible to provide a timeframe for the progression of the project to tender and construction stages until such time as the necessary statutory approvals have been secured.
The school is currently located in modular accommodation at an interim location in Swords, Co, Dublin, pending delivery of the permanent accommodation for the school. Two additional classrooms are currently being installed which will bring the school to an eight-classroom school in the 2026/27 school year. Given site constraints, there is no provision for a classroom for children with special educational needs at the interim location.
Since 2020, my department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. In addition, re-purposing 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. It is planned that circa 80 school building projects will progress to construction across 2026 and 2027 as part of a 2-year rolling programme.
All Government departments are expected to publish their sectoral NDP Implementation Plans this year. My department’s 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 keep the school and patron body informed of the progression of this project.
