Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
450. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Education and Youth the position regarding the assessment process of an application for additional school accommodation (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73474/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI can confirm to the Deputy, that my department is in receipt of an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question.
The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and Special Education Needs (SEN) accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation.
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 1,400 school building projects. Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. A recent Government decision has approved €210m supplementary capital funding for my department which brings 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 the 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 application from the school in question is currently being considered in this context by my officials. Once the assessment process has been finalised the school authority will be notified of the decision directly.
