Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2025
244. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Minister for Education and Youth the status of an application for additional accommodation by a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [67542/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe school referred to by the Deputy was approved to enter my Department’s pipeline of school buildings for a project to provide four Mainstream Classrooms, two SET Rooms and a two classroom SEN Base under the Additional School Accommodation Scheme.
Responsibility for delivery has been devolved to the school authority, which has appointed a design team to manage the project. My Department’s professional and technical team has reviewed the project following the submission of a revised floor plan and additional clarification provided by the design team after a preplanning meeting with Tipperary County Council.
As part of this process, a resubmission of the Stage 1 report was requested prior to progression to the next phase. The Department received the revised Stage 1 report in Q2 2025 which is currently under review. All projects, including this one, will undergo the necessary due diligence outlined in the public Infrastructure Guidelines. Managing timing, scope, and cost is crucial to staying within budgetary limits for the overall program.
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. 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 roll-out 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 roll-out over the course of 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.
My department is now preparing an NDP implementation plan which is due for publication later in the year. This 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.
