Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, to outline to the House the current position regarding the school projects for Dunboyne junior and senior national schools, Station Road, Dunboyne, County Meath.
These school building projects will deliver a new 24-classroom primary school, with additional classrooms for children with special educational needs for the senior school, and the construction of an eight-classroom extension planned refurbishment, with classrooms for children with special educational needs for the junior school.
The school was authorised to proceed to stage 3, tender, in December 2020 and in May 2021, it was authorised to issue a letter of intent.
The tender report relating to reserved specialist contractors was received from the design team and sent to the Department for review in July 2021. Due to the passage of time and in light of the increased construction costs, a decision was made in November 2021 to reprice the tenders. These were returned in quarter 1 of 2022. Following a review of the tender report, the authorisation to issue the letter of intent was issued in October 2022. In June 2024, a decision was taken to collapse the tender to allow for an increased scope of works, which, following consultation with the design team, was deemed necessary. Decarbonisation measures were included in the revised project scope in line with climate action objectives.
The Department of Education and Youth received the revised stage 2b submission report for the senior school from the design team in June 2025. Department officials will carry out a full review of the stage 2b report, and the school and design team will be kept informed of the next steps. The Department is currently engaging with the design team regarding the process of removing and replacing the temporary accommodation at Dunboyne Junior National School. In July, the Government announced its largest capital allocation of over €7.5 billion for the Department of Education and Youth under the national development plan, NDP. As part of that allocation, we will see a strong emphasis on the provision of accommodation for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school placement needs.
In relation to the roll-out of largescale 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 to provide necessary additional accommodation through targeted and prioritised projects. The NDP implementation plan for education has seen its first tranche announced, and that will be progressed this year and next. It will be revised on an ongoing basis.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-26