Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

Investment and expenditure on sports facilities in both primary and post-primary schools is an element of the overall expenditure and investment in the schools building programme. Practically all schools have outdoor play areas although I accept that many of them vary depending on the different schools. Many schools use adjacent local community facilities and we encourage the dual use of different facilities that are close to each other. The provision of outdoor play areas forms part of the accommodation brief for all new school buildings or where a major building or refurbishment project is being delivered for an existing school. Co-operation between schools and the local sporting organisations in sharing their sporting facilities provides opportunity to apply for sport grants including the sports capital grants administered by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. In recent years there has been huge encouragement of schools and communities in particular working with sporting clubs to have joint applications in that regard.

The provision of capital funding for outdoor recreation facilities is just one way in which we support increased physical activity. The redeveloped primary curriculum specification for physical education extends the time available for PE with a particular emphasis on community partnerships and the use of the outdoor environment generally.

Since 2020, my Department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the NDP, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. A total of 111 of these were large-scale school projects, all of which included extensive accommodation, including outdoor play areas. In July, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026 to 2030. As others also will, I will publish an implementation plan in that regard. My Department’s plan will optimise outputs from the allocations with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is insufficient, and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs. In terms of providing further funding for the outdoor spaces, we are investing to support curricular delivery and well-being across schools by prioritising the development of PE halls and sporting facilities in conjunction with the sports capital fund to deliver for both schools and communities.

The climate action summer works scheme, along with the emergency works scheme and the minor works scheme, provides a mechanism for schools to make small-scale improvements where they have facilities that need upgrading.

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