Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-20
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Robert Troy (FF), Longford-Westmeath

I thank my friend and colleague. I will read the standard script because the previous question I answered was for my own Department. This one is in relation to the Department of education, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughton. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me, on her behalf, an opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the school building project for Bunclody Community College, Bunclody, County Wexford.
The project referred to by the Deputy is devolved for delivery, as he said, to Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board. The project brief is to provide an extension to the existing school building, as well as the appropriate refurbishment of the existing buildings to be retained for ongoing educational use. This will cater for a long-term projected enrolment of 550 and provide two special education classrooms.
The project is currently at stage 2b of the architectural design process. This stage allows for detailed design and planning, obtaining necessary statutory permissions and preparation of tender documents. A stage 2b report has been submitted to the Department from WWETB. The report is undergoing a detailed technical and cost review in line with the public spending code. All projects, including this one, are subject to the due diligence requirements of the public infrastructure guidelines. Managing timing, scope and the cost is crucial to staying within budgetary limits for the overall programme. Once the review is complete, the outcome will be communicated to WWETB as the delivery body for this project that will continue to engage directly with the school authorities to keep them fully informed of progress. The length of time a project takes to deliver depends on a number of factors, including scale and complexity, and is subject to the time it takes to progress through the various project stages and the statutory approval process, which I understand, as the Deputy said, it has already gone through.
In July 2025, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period from 2026 to 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 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 the period from 2026 to 2030 to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.
The NDP implementation plan for the education and youth sector and the first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published by the Department shortly. This NDP implementation 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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-20