Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for an overview of the progress made to date under national strategic outcome 10 of the National Development Plan 2021-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19791/24]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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What progress has there been to date under national strategic outcome 10 of the national development plan? I am especially interested in hearing an answer in the context of disability matters.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is aware of the value of the overall national development plan and the number of years over which the money will be spent, so I will not go into those facts and figures now. Rather, I will cut to the question he asked about national strategic outcome, NSO, 10.

NSO 10 refers to access to quality childcare, education and health services and aims to ensure that the co-ordination and provision of childcare places, primary and post-primary schools places and health infrastructure with the spatial development of cities and regions is consistent with the objectives of the national planning framework.

In terms of childcare, during 2023, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth spent €215 million in its various capital programmes to support a range of key services in respect of children and young people and international migrants. The Department of Education spent almost €1.2 billion on primary and post-primary infrastructure and continued to deliver school building projects under various programmes and schemes, such as the large-scale capital programme and the additional school accommodation scheme. The Department of Health invested more than €1.1 billion to improve health facilities and provide new primary care centres, community nursing units and hospital ward blocks.

In 2024, more than €13 billion is available to Departments to spend on vital infrastructure in areas such as childcare, education and health, as well as transport, housing, water infrastructure and cultural amenities. NSO 10 will continue to be a key Government priority as we aim to support the ongoing delivery of our national strategic outcomes in a way that is consistent with the national planning framework.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. There are a number of issues with the strategic outcome, particularly relating to childcare. Huge sums have been rolled out in respect of the development of the capacities within childcare facilities, whether preschool, afterschool or full childcare. To make sure moneys are spent and capacity is developed, it is important that in every review of the outcomes and of the progress being made, the stumbling blocks and the bureaucracy that has developed must be monitored.

On schools and education, there is huge pressure on the education system to develop in line with an expanding population. As Chair of the disability committee, I see the challenges relating to disability coming in regularly. One of those challenges relates to kids going from primary to post-primary and development of special schools. There are plans within Departments and the Government regarding the development of special schools, and those decisions should be taken early. My understanding is decisions will be taken shortly, but it takes some time between a decision having been made to earmark a community for a special school and its delivery and, therefore, if decisions are being made, they should be made in the short term.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy pointed out the important role special schools play with regard to the movement of pupils from primary to post-primary. I can absolutely assure him that in my engagement with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and formerly with her predecessor, Deputy Madigan, the importance of special schools is fully recognised by the Department of Education. In any discussion I have had with them on capital funding, special schools have been given the status they deserve. They will always make the case for more money for any kind of school building and will always say they can spend more and will always look for more from me, but in the settlement we have reached on capital funding, that Department has always raised special schools and I have done my best to find the funding to move forward on them because I know how important they are. I have seen them in action myself.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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On that point, when I meet families, as I am sure the Minister has done, whose child has completed primary education and has nowhere to go for post-primary education, the challenge has to be addressed in large part within the mainstream schools but also within special schools. The National Council for Special Education has been doing great work in looking at where in the country the special schools have to be in place but I would ask the Minister, in collaboration with the Minister for Education and the Minister of State, who I appreciate have been fully briefed, to push insofar as possible to ensure the reports on where the schools should be developed will be submitted and that the schools will be developed in the shortest space of time. The difficulty we have with delivering a lot of the projects in the national development plan relates to going through the statutory processes for planning and so on, and people get very frustrated with that. I appeal to the Minister to keep the negotiations going, as he outlined he will do, and to keep funding available for the education of kids with additional needs because there is a chronic unmet need within the community.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I have visited such a school myself and am absolutely aware of their importance. So many girls and boys who have additional needs need to be supported and educated in a very different school environment. I have seen the impact a couple of these schools have made and the difference they can make to the life journeys of students and their families. I again assure the Deputy that in all the engagement I have had with the Department of Education over many years, the issue of capital funding for special schools receives the focus it deserves. As he knows, we made additional funding available to that Department last year, for example, and as part of that funding, special schools were recognised within that settlement for additional capital support. I take the Deputy's point regarding their importance.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Very briefly-----

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Sin é.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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On the funding that was allocated on the capital programme last year, does much of that, if any, remain unspent?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am not aware of any of it being unspent. The urgency of this is appreciated and I can assure the Deputy that whenever I meet the Minister and her Department to discuss capital funding, they give the focus to special schools that he is seeking.