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

I am taking this matter on behalf of Deputy Michael Moynihan, Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth, who sends his apologies because he cannot be here today. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and giving me the opportunity to outline the Department of Education and Youth’s plans to address the accommodation needs for Gorey Hill School.
Gorey Hill School is one of four special schools established for the 2024-25 school year. The school operates under the patronage of Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board, ETB. The school currently supports 37 young people aged between four and 18 who have a diagnosis of autism and-or complex learning needs, with a professional recommendation requiring the support of a special school setting. The staffing comprises an administrative principal, administrative deputy principal, seven class teachers and 18 special needs assistants, together with ten post primary co-operation hours per week.
The school is based in a Department-owned school property in Gorey. Surplus capacity in the building was repurposed to make it suitable for special school purposes and to facilitate the opening of the new school. The repurposing project was delivered under the Department’s special educational needs reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme, which facilitated the school opening as quickly as possible. The programme involves the use of project management supports which is designed to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and help ease the administrative workload for school authorities in relation to the management and delivery of projects. This is a collaborative process between the project manager, school authority and the Department of Education and Youth.
The property provides an opportunity to facilitate a co-location arrangement with other schools, which is consistent with the Department’s approach of maximising existing capacity and enabling local unmet needs for special school places to be met. The school is now at capacity and additional accommodation is required to facilitate further enrolments. The site at Gorey provides a good location for expanding capacity with a permanent modular extension for the school.
The Department of Education and Youth regards the current repurposed school building as the permanent location for Gorey Hill School. It is intended that the permanent capacity at the school will be expanded through the provision of the proposed modular accommodation project. This detail is currently being worked through and the Department is engaging with Waterford and Wexford ETB during this process.
The modular accommodation framework is a key part of the Department’s strategy for the provision of good quality functional accommodation to meet the permanent accommodation requirements for prioritised individual schools. Between 2020 and 2025, the Department of Education and Youth has provided €174.6 million in capital funding for Wexford schools. Over this period, a total of 58 schools have been upgraded either through provision of a new school building, a large-scale extension or provision of modular accommodation.
There are currently seven school projects in Wexford under construction. One school project will go to tender or construction in 2026-27, and this summer, eight schools are approved to undergo works as part of the summer works scheme. In addition, since 2020, a total of 80 special classes have been opened in Wexford, ten of which were sanctioned for September next. Budget 2026 has secured funding for 3,000 new specialist places and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is currently examining where these places are best located for the 2026-27 academic year.

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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