Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-15
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

What is the old Irish seanfhocal - "Ní neart go cur le chéile"? I worked with the Deputies on Belmayne Educate Together and it is encouraging to see all Deputies from the area coming together. It sends a powerful signal to their communities, to us and to the Department about the seriousness of it. I commend the Deputies on that.
I thank them for raising the issue. We are fully committed to delivering a new school building for Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. This large-scale capital project involves the provision of a new 600-pupil school and ancillary accommodation.
The project was originally authorised to proceed to tender upon completion of the prequalification questionnaire shortlisting process in September 2022. Planning permission was due to expire in December 2022 and it was anticipated that an application to extend the duration could be submitted. However, due to changes in the Planning and Development Act 2000, there was no longer provision to apply for an extension and a new application would be required. Authorisation was given in June 2022 to progress the new planning application. The new application was submitted in March 2023 with additional supporting documentation requested by Dublin City Council over and above what had been supplied with the original application. Our Department previously advised a new grant of planning was received in December 2023 with a number of conditions attached. As a result, decarbonisation measures were included in a revised project scope, in line with climate action objectives.
The design team has finalised the pre-tender checks and documents in line with revised technical guidance documentation from the Department and a report was recently submitted to the Department for review. This review is being undertaken in the context of the Department’s national development plan allocation and the finalisation of the NDP implementation plan. The design team has finalised the tender documents in line with revised technical guidance documentation from the Department. I am informed by the senior Minister that she expects the review of the project by Department officials to be completed shortly, which will allow the tender to take place. This large-scale capital project remains a priority for delivery and departmental officials remain engaged throughout with the patron, Dublin and Dun Laoghaire ETB.
The Department promotes and supports Irish-medium school provision, including Gaelcholáistí and Gaelscoileanna. There are 248 Gaelscoileanna and 50 Gaelcholáistí throughout the country. Between 2020 and 2024, capital expenditure of over €400 million was invested in Irish-medium schools, demonstrating the Department’s commitment to the Irish-medium school sector.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:13+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-15