School Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-14
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Marian Harkin (IND), Sligo-Leitrim

I thank Deputy Hayes for raising this matter as it gives me an opportunity on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth to provide an update on the support provided by the Department to schools in south Dublin. I acknowledge the strong support provided by the Government, including by way of supplementary capital funding, which has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for the Department to €1.6 billion and the announcement of a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026 to 2030 under the national development plan.
As part of this allocation, the Department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place requirements.
In relation to project roll-out for large-scale projects and additional school accommodation scheme projects, the approach will be to continue to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and to provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the course of the period from 2026 to 2030 to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs. The capital allocation will also facilitate the roll-out of projects under the Department’s multi-annual climate action summer works scheme, the completion of the roll-out of the solar PV programme and the EU's REPowerEU retrofit programmes, which will be important elements in supporting the climate agenda and, crucially, will help reduce heating and electricity costs for schools and improve energy efficiency. This is a record level of investment in our schools and highlights the Government’s very strong track record of delivery in providing additional capacity and modern facilities for our school communities.
To move to what is happening in south Dublin, the Department has invested over €590 million since 2020. In the region of €575 million of this funding was invested in school building projects across schools in Dublin Bay South, Dublin South-Central, Dublin South-West, Dublin Rathdown and Dún Laoghaire. This investment has supported the completion of 129 school building projects. This includes seven new school buildings. There are also 39 school building projects currently in construction in south Dublin, of which seven are new school buildings. The Department is now preparing an NDP implementation plan, which is due for publication later in the autumn. This plan will optimise outputs from the NDP allocations with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area will not meet future requirements, and ensuring delivery that is affordable.
It is important to say that the Department has increased funding for schools across the country, including those in south Dublin, to help meet rising day-to-day running costs. Recent budgets have delivered significant permanent increases in school funding to support principals and boards in managing their everyday expenses. This includes the increase in the capitation grant in the recent budget. These investments are ensuring schools can better cover essentials like heating, lighting, cleaning and ancillary staffing. I may add a little bit more in my supplementary response.

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Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-14