Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
============================================================

Brendan Smith (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I fully appreciate that the Minister is not to get involved in technical details but the board of management, the principal and I have sought clarification from the Department and it has not been forthcoming. The board of management, the principal, Mr. Keith Conefrey, the parents’ association and all the staff do not want to waste time getting a redesign, submitting it to the Department and then being turned down again. We are talking about ensuring the best value for money here. An answer via a note to myself or directly to the school from the Minister’s Department would benefit everybody. It would benefit the Department from an expenditure point of view and it would also help speed up what is very much needed.
The Minister referred to this accommodation being particularly focused on the needs of pupils with additional needs and ensuring there is proper accommodation in that regard. This school’s enrolment has grown from 51 pupils 15 years ago to 175 pupils today. There is a special emphasis in this school on providing for children with additional needs. This accommodation is needed. If this project could be progressed as soon as possible, it would be a good day’s work for that community.

---

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/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12