Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2025
268. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Education and Youth the current status of a new school building project for a post-primary school in Naas (details supplied), first promised by Minister Jan O'Sullivan in November 2015. [67733/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe project to which the deputy refers has been devolved to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) for delivery as part of a programme of school building projects. The brief for this project is provide a new build post primary school to accommodate a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils including a 6 class SEN base.
The project is currently at Stage 3 of the architectural design process – Tender Stage. The length of time a project takes to go through each stage varies and depends on a number of factors, including scale and complexity. The NDFA will be engaging directly with the school authority to keep it informed of progress.
My Department is committed to ensuring appropriate school accommodation is available for all children in St Marys College and will in the wider context outlined, ensure that this project - as for all projects on the school building programme - is subject to the due diligence required under the public Infrastructure Guidelines.
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 shortly. 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. This will be the context for assessing all project rollout for the 2026 to 2030 period.
The current status of all projects is listed on a county-by-county basis at www.gov.ie. under item number 10 and this is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.
