School Admissions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal

I will relay to the Minister for education the Deputy's comments and the representations she has made on this issue on the floor of the Dáil today.
To touch further on the assessment of need and demand for school places in a school area, the Department uses data from a range of sources, including child benefit data, enrolments and information on new residential developments, to plan for school place needs. As has been outlined, there has been significant investment made in school infrastructure across County Kildare, and the Department is continually planning for and investing in existing and new schools.
Furthermore, the Department’s national development plan sectoral investment plan, which runs from 2026 to 2030, involves a very strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. Of the total €7.5 billion investment, it is envisaged that approximately €5 billion will be used for project roll-out to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings across large-scale and additional accommodation, as well as the modular and annual September accommodation needs programmes. Over the course of 2026 and 2027, there will be construction work at approximately 10% of the school estate. These projects, when completed, will provide about 57,000 additional and modernised school places, with a strong special educational need focus in all of the projects.
As I mentioned, the Department will continue to work closely with the patrons and schools to ensure that all pupils in north Kildare receive an offer of a school place. I will update the Minister on the challenges and pressures and the Deputy's contribution for her to consider and for her officials to work on further.

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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