Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Brendan Smith (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I strongly welcome the major investment in school buildings since 2020, both in my constituency and nationally. In her response, the Minister stated that the Department is awaiting a submission of a revised stage 1 report from the school. I have been in contact with the Department in this regard, as has the school. This will mean that the school will be submitting plans to the Department for the third time. The Department has requested that the design team cuts down on the cost of the project. In order to reduce the cost of the revised project, the architect is proposing that the new extension be elevated by 1.2 m. This will reduce costs of the excavation, earth disposal, retaining walls and access ramps. The proposed new drawings have both steps and an enclosed lift on the main corridor.
In an effort to speed up the process, and before the school sends the drawings to be repriced by the quantity surveyor, the board of management of the school has asked both me and the Department for clarification as to whether the building unit in the Minister’s Department will accept the building with split levels when pupils with special educational needs will be accessing those corridors. I appreciate that detail is not in the Minister’s briefing notes but I ask her to quickly give me a note on this or for the Department to write directly to the board of management and principal stating whether the revised plans with split levels are acceptable to the Department’s specifications. The school does not want to waste money in doing this if the plans will be rejected.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12