Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2026
491. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Education and Youth for an update on a school building project (details supplied); if she will consider the alternative application by the school; her views on the loss of amenities space under her Department’s existing plan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14254/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe school referred to has been approved to enter my Department’s pipeline of projects under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme. The project will provide four mainstream classrooms, three special education teaching (SET) rooms, a two-classroom special educational needs (SEN) base, and repurposing of existing space to create one SEN class base.
The purpose of ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and SEN accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school's existing accommodation.
The Stage 1 (preliminary design) report was submitted to my Department for the ASA project in Quarter 4 2024 and is currently undergoing a comprehensive technical and cost review. All projects, including this one, are subject to the full due-diligence requirements set out in my Department’s Infrastructure Guidelines.
More recently the school has asked for another modular unit to be provided along with the current project under consideration for the replacement of a prefab on site. The school authorities were advised that consideration of this would not be possible at this time.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Department of Education and Youth 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.
Of the total €7.55 billion investment it is envisaged that circa. €5 billion will be used for project rollout to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings. This project rollout will continue on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. In this regard, the department have also published a list of the 105 school building projects in the first tranche to proceed to construction or tender over 2026 and 2027. These projects were prioritised with a strong focus on maximising existing capacity and prioritising project rollout to meet the most urgent needs particularly to support special education needs provision.
In relation to the matter of the location of the two modular units for special education classrooms, I can confirm that department officials have been working with the school authorities regularly over the course of a year and will continue to engage with them in relation to agreeing the location. Furthermore, the modular project being proposed here will still leave the school with a large amount of green space available for use.
I can assure the Deputy that my department is very cognisant of the requirement around the delivery of accommodation for the school in question and is working to advance matters as quickly as possible.
