Schools Building Projects Dail Éireann — 2026-05-12 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central Táim fíorbhuíoch de na Teachtaí Ellis agus McAuliffe as an ábhar seo a ardú sa Teacht. Táim ag caint thar ceann an Aire Oideachais. Tá brón uirthi nach bhfuil sí anseo chun labhairt faoi Ghaelscoil Uí Earcáin. Bhí an Teachta McAuliffe mar dhalta san fhoirgneamh 40 bliain ó shin. Bheadh a sheanathair bródúil as. Molaim dó as an obair atá á déanamh aige ar son na scoile. The important point that both Deputy Ellis and Deputy McAuliffe have raised is that the project is to provide a new replacement 16-classroom primary school and accommodation for pupils with special educational needs at the existing site. As the Members know, the current school building will remain in operation until the replacement school is delivered and will be demolished thereafter. I am taking this Topical Issue tonight on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughton. I know Deputy McAuliffe has been in contact with her. As has been said, the project is currently at stage 2a, architectural planning - developed design. At this stage, the preferred design option is developed to a point at which the project can be fully cost planned and prepared to lodge for statutory approvals. This major programme is being delivered under the Department's ADAPT programme. Tá an clár tógála scoile ag méadú. We are increasing the programme. The programme uses a professional external project manager to co-ordinate and drive the design team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of architectural planning and on to tender and construction. As both Deputies have said, the Department of Education and Youth has reviewed the stage 2a submission. The stage 2a stakeholders' meeting between the school authorities, the design team, the project manager and the Department was held in January last year. The meeting concluded with a request for the design team to submit a stage 2a addendum report addressing issues raised by the Department at the meeting. The Department has received this report. Upon review of the report, the Department will advise all stakeholders regarding the progression of the project. I have been informed by the Minister that she has published a €7.55 billion NDP sectoral investment plan for the education and youth sectors. This plan places a strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and the prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard, there will be a strong emphasis on special education throughout project roll-out. Of the €7.55 billion, it is envisaged that around €5 billion will be used for project roll-out to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings across the large-scale, additional accommodation, modular and annual September accommodation needs programmes. I am told the Department will continue to build on the progress made with the continued roll-out of these projects on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. The Minister has informed me that she has published a list of 105 school building projects to proceed to construction or tender this year or next year. This includes 80 large-scale and additional school accommodation scheme projects. There is a strong focus on maximising existing capacity and prioritising project roll-out to meet the most urgent needs and particularly to support special education needs provision. Those projects that are at tender stage, stage 3, will be facilitated to progress to construction over the course of this year and next year. Some 35 projects that currently have planning permission and that are at pre-tender stage will also be facilitated. I will take the views and remarks of both Deputies back to the Minister. I know the reply I have given is not what they wanted to hear as regards where we are going and the provision of additional capacity to cater for the demographics they have described clearly. On foot of what we have heard tonight, I will bring their remarks and views back to the Minister. --- 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/2026-05-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-12