Special Educational Needs
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I will take this in two parts. I thank the Senator very much. I know her huge interest in education, including special education, goes back a long time. She and I have worked together in various capacities over the last while. I, therefore, accept the Senator's bona fides on these issues.
I will go through the building project for St. Anne's Special School in the Curragh. The project is included in the Department of education's construction programme, which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of Project 2040 funding. The brief for the project is to provide 16 new special school classrooms, including the demolition of some of the existing buildings. It also includes the retention of the extension completed in 2012. The major building project for the school is currently at an advanced stage of architectural planning - stage 2b, detailed design - and the design team has secured all the statutory approvals and is preparing the suite for the tender documents.
The stage 2b submission was received by the Department of education in May 2024. It has been reviewed by the Department's officials and comments have been issued to the design team. The Department is currently awaiting the design team's clarifications. Once the stage 2b submission clarifications have been received, the Department will review the additional information.
As the Senator said, planning permission for St. Anne's Special School was granted on 25 March 2022. In the event that an extension to the current planning permission is required by the Department, the design team will arrange for the preparation of the documents for same when necessary.
The Senator will understand that there is a huge envelope of money in the national development plan for investment in education right across the estates of the schools. This project has been ongoing and there has been huge engagement on it between the Department and the school authorities. I know from the Senator's representation and, indeed, from the information we have that County Kildare and its surrounds have huge need. The Senator mentioned Monasterevin. We are trying to make sure we have appropriate education to meet the needs. I know the Senator has a personal involvement in St. Anne's as well, and I will take that in board.
We are waiting for some documentation to come back from the design team with clarifications. I ask the Senator to use her good offices to ensure that is returned to the Department as a matter of urgency. I will give a commitment that those matters will then be looked at as speedily as possible in the Department. We understand the need for the school. This has been a long time coming and the school authorities and school community have long been advocating on this issue to the Senator. I ask her to make sure that any outstanding documentation is returned to the Department. We will then take that and go through it as fast as possible to make sure we can move this project forward. It is a hugely important special education work in Kildare and we are anxious to make sure it progresses.
In my closing remarks, I will refer to the issues the Senator raised in relation to funding for insurance and so forth. The Senator should rest assured that if we get the information back, we will progress the project as fast as humanly possible within the Department.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21