Mr. Hubert Loftus:

The provision of PE halls is an important commitment under the programme for Government. It is also an important commitment under Project Ireland 2040. The national development plan, NDP, is the funding mechanism to deliver on those particular priorities. There is not a separate stream of funding in that regard. The NDP is our funding stream. As I said earlier in my statement, there is a €4.4 billion capital programme funding stream to cover the period from 2021 to 2025. Approximately 80% of post-primary schools have a PE hall and a further 10% have access to one nearby, which leaves a residual of 10%. Most of that residual relates to smaller post-primary school.

We are delivering PE halls as part of our capital programme. When we build a new post-primary school, we provide a PE hall. When we do a large-scale refurbishment and extension to a school, we provide a PE hall as part of that. The Deputy is correct that when we are doing other smaller-scale projects, the PE hall is not necessarily part of the brief for that. There are probably a few elements to that residual. We are looking to link in with our colleagues at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. We are looking at the wider facilities in the community locally to see what opportunities there are for alignment and to achieve best value for State funding generally. Some of our staff are part of the steering groups there.

In looking forward in terms of PE hall provision and dealing with that retrofit and residual, we have the bigger picture to look at as well in the context of the deep energy retrofit programme and how that aligns. If we think of the overall school buildings currently in place in those schools that do not have a PE hall, the question is whether the long-term trajectory for that school is a deep energy retrofit of the existing building or whether it involves demolish and rebuild? That can then feed into the considerations of the best way forward to deal with the PE hall issue. There are certain complexities; it is not simple. Certainly, it is a commitment under the project for Government and is a commitment under Project Ireland 2040. I am also conscious that in dealing with current commencements, we need to manage priorities relating to special needs. We have many Ukrainian children in our schools currently. We have increasing demographics at post-primary level. We need to manage the collective priorities as best as possible.