School Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-07
============================================================

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

The Department is committed to ensuring that appropriate accommodation is available for all school pupils and will, in the wider context outlined, ensure that each school project on the school building programme is subject to the due diligence required under the Government’s infrastructure guidelines.
Since 2020, the Department of Education and Youth has provided €796.5 million in capital funding for Cork schools. Over this period, a total of 168 schools have been upgraded through provision of a new school building, a large-scale extension or modular accommodation. Twelve school projects to go to tender or construction in 2026 and 2027 were included in the NDP implementation plan. There are currently 18 school projects in Cork under construction. The status of all projects continues to be set out under item 10 on the Department’s website under building works for the construction, extension and refurbishment of schools. This is updated regularly to reflect projects' progress through capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction stages. The accommodation requirements at Coachford school will be considered as part of the ongoing overall Department prioritisation process, in consultation with the school’s patron and school authorities.
I will bring this matter back to the Minister. I see the Deputy's concerns. The school is growing and getting extra teachers. It is important. The Deputy has been speaking to the school and wants to see if we can get a modular build in the interim. I will contact the Minister's office tomorrow and highlight the issues that the Deputy has highlighted this evening.

---

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/2026-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-07