Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Robert Troy (FF), Longford-Westmeath

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the school building project for St. Mary's Oldtown, County Dublin. This project was approved to enter the Department of Education and Youth’s pipeline under the additional school accommodation scheme and is devolved for delivery to the school authority.
The project will provide three mainstream classrooms, one special education tuition room and a two-classroom special educational needs base. The project is currently at stage 2a, detailed design, of the architectural design process. The stage 2a report has been submitted to the Department and is currently under review from both a technical and cost perspective. All projects, including this one, are subject to the full due diligence requirements set out in the Department’s infrastructure guidelines.
Although this project is not within the first tranche of school building projects recently published in the NDP sectoral investment plan, it remains part of the Department’s overall pipeline of school building projects. The NDP sectoral plan involves a very strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard, there will be a strong special education dimension to the project roll-out.
The Department will continue to build on the progress made over recent years by continuing to roll out projects on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. As part of planning ahead for the next tranche of projects to progress to tender, the Department-led prioritisation process will continue over the course of 2026 and 2027 in order to assess and evaluate the progression of individual projects through the design pipeline, having regard to the continual need to maximise existing capacity and determine the prioritised needs going forward. This process will involve engagement with key stakeholders and individual schools and will ultimately inform the next tranches of programme roll-out to tender. The Department-led energy and condition survey of the school estate, which will be finalised later in 2026, will provide an additional evidence base for assessing priorities.
Based on the ongoing prioritisation process, some projects may be added to the list over the course of 2026 and 2027, having regard to their prioritisation and urgency of need, and taking account of the ongoing ability to progress them to tender and construction within the parameters of overall funding. Where appropriate, the Department will also assess opportunities to undertake advance enabling works for the most urgent and complex projects to facilitate a smooth progression to construction in 2028 and beyond. Any interim accommodation requirements will continue to be assessed and considered by the Department on a case-by-case basis to determine the prioritised needs and approach for addressing same.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16