Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
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Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West

I am conscious if I go into one school I am going to run out of time but I heard the schools the Deputy raised. To be eligible for inclusion in the first tranche of projects to proceed, projects needed to be ready and be at the appropriate stage of readiness. Stage 3 is tender and stage 2b is detailed design and pre-tender. Within this context, priority was afforded to special schools, and we will be having a focus on that for the next tranche, schools that are fully in interim accommodation across the country and with an urgent requirement for permanent accommodation and projects delivering significant special education capacity. We are looking at the existing accommodation when we are looking at expanding schools or the NPD where it is possible we can use the existing school capacity. Another weighting we give is additional accommodation required to cater for demographic growth in an area and projects dealing with the most significant condition issues. That is our condition and energy survey. For the first time, the Department will have information and good data on the energy and condition of all our school estates across the country. That will feed into the next prioritisation.

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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