School Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
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Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West

The Department funded a substantial extension and refurbishment in 2014 of this school. This included six new classrooms, special education rooms, a GP hall, a new basketball court and a new carpark. The existing building was also completely refurbished. The school was subsequently approved for a further extension under the ASA scheme in 2021, to provide a two SEN classroom unit and one additional mainstream classroom. This project is devolved to the school authority for delivery and is at stage 1 of architectural design and planning. As the Deputy knows, the school was also approved for an SEN repurposing project in 2024, to reconfigure an existing room to cater for a second special education class, pending the provision of that new permanent extension. A further application for rental of interim accommodation to cater for a mainstream class was refused in May of this year, on the grounds that there is already sufficient capacity in the area and the responsibility of the school to manage its enrolments to suit its capacity in that context. In the Youghal area, we have to look at the capacity within the planning school area as part of our prioritisation process.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-16