Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this matter. I join him in expressing my sympathies.

This project is included in the Department of Education and Youth’s construction programme, which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of the Project Ireland 2040 framework. The Divine Mercy Junior National School and the Divine Mercy Senior National School are co-educational, Catholic schools under the patronage of the Archbishop of Dublin. This joint school building project will deliver a new extension and refurbishment of some of the existing accommodation to provide two 24-classroom primary schools with classrooms for children with special educational needs to cater for the junior and senior schools.

The original brief for the schools was for a 24-classroom school for both the junior and senior national schools, an increase in both schools from 16 classrooms. Stage 1 of this major project was completed in July 2014, with stage 2a completed in March 2016. A complete stage 2b report was received by the Department in January 2019 for review. Subsequent to this, the design team architect withdrew from the project, and was replaced in the summer of 2021 by a new consultant architect. Due to the passage of time since the original brief was agreed and on review of the schedule of accommodation during 2021, the Department requested two special education needs classrooms be added to the brief for both schools. This necessary brief change will require a new planning application along with other statutory approvals. The design team submitted its amended design options, to include the increased accommodation, to the Department for review, which is currently ongoing.

On completion of the Department's review, a meeting of all stakeholders will be held to discuss and agree the preferred option, which can be further developed and prepared to be submitted for planning permission. During the planning application process, requests for further information from the local authority and possible third-party appeals to An Coimisiún Pleanála can occur. Therefore, it is currently not possible to provide a timeline for the completion of stage 2B.

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 under the national development plan. As part of this NDP 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 needs.

In relation to the 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 provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the course of the 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs. It is planned that circa 80 school building projects will progress to construction across 2026 and 2027 as part of that two-year rolling programme.

See this speech in context