Schools Building Projects Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23 ============================================================ Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West First, to reassure people, the NDP is a five-year plan but I know there is urgency. When you are on the list, it is great but when you are not on it, there is disappointment. This is the first tranche of a five-year national development plan programme for the country. It is €1.6 billion for those that are going to tender and construction this year and next year. My Department is also carrying out a prioritisation list. I know that school is moving through the process but it is looking at the energy and conditions of all the school estate across the country. That will feed in to prioritisation. There are some school which do not have a home at all - they might be working from a sports club, for example - and special education is a real priority for us. Also schools which have space to provide extra special education classes in their existing footprint are a priority as well. I know the Department will be working with that school to move it through the different stages of the process. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-23