Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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9. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on the number of school building projects currently delayed across the State; the reasons for these delays; and the steps which are being taken to ensure children are not left learning in prefabs or overcrowded classrooms this winter. [59599/25]

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I want to ask the Minister about the criteria for prioritising school capital projects and about delays. It appears that a significant number of projects have been delayed. Can the Minister outline how many capital project delays there are across the country and the primary reasons therefor?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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At the outset, I wish to say that my Department has a strong track record of delivery. Since 2020, my Department has invested more than €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the national development plan. As I mentioned earlier, this involves the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. Given the fact that there are 4,000 schools across the country, the delivery of 1,300 school projects over the last number of years is a significant achievement.

In July, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth out to 2030 under the national development plan. As part of this allocation, my Department will place a strong emphasis on a number of things, including the provision of special education for children and the development of new special schools. It is about making sure that our new builds have provisions for special education but also, on top of that, that there is additional accommodation within that where we need to provide special classes within mainstream schools that currently do not have them. There will be a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. Where there is a growth in demographics, it is important that we be able to respond to that, whether it be a new building that is needed or an expansion of a current school place. For those schools not in permanent buildings, such as those in my constituency or the schools referenced earlier that are in temporary or modular accommodation, we need to ensure we are able to deliver new schools for those communities as quickly as possible.

Over 300 school building projects, including 38 new schools, are currently in construction to deliver more than 30,000 school places. Most of these projects are expected to be completed over the course of 2026 and 2027. On top of that, it is planned that approximately 80 further school building projects will progress to construction across 2026 and 2027 as part of a two-year rolling programme.

Project delivery is managed as part of an overall capital programme in line with the Government's infrastructure guidelines. Of course, we always have to take budgetary parameters into account. We do not have an infinite amount of money, so we have to make sure that the projects we have in the system are moving and we are able to progress and deliver them within the budget we have. It is fair to say that delays can happen for certain reasons and different factors, often beyond the Department’s control, such as site acquisition and planning permissions. Often, we have issues, as we have seen, with tenders or contractors. Sometimes, these are issues the Department cannot mitigate, but it obviously adds to some of the delays we see in some of the projects.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I appreciate there is a significant amount of money - hundreds of millions of euro - spent on capital projects. Of course, there must be prioritisation and so on and, obviously, the need for expanding schools and special education should be an important prioritisation. However, I would appreciate it if the Minister could consider nuanced issues in schools as well. For example, Claremorris is a wonderful town with two single-sex schools. They had a consultation over several years, which the Department of education in Tullamore oversaw. There is huge support for an amalgamation of those two schools. The primary schools in Claremorris have recently amalgamated. The patrons of Mount St. Michael Secondary School and St. Colman’s College are supportive, as are parents, school management and the chamber of commerce. There is a huge level of support for it. However, the Department issued notice to the schools a number of months ago outlining the criteria the Minister outlined a few moments ago, basically stating that it would not be supporting it in any sense in terms of capital infrastructure. I ask the Minister to consider that report, the demand and the choice that I know the Minister is very keen to support. I ask her-----

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy can come back in. I call the Minister.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Given the fact that there are so many schools and competing demands, there has to be prioritisation. There is a need to prioritise, firstly, special education. We need to make sure we are providing not only sufficient places for this school term, but that we are forward planning. That is why we need to look at developing more special schools. We have built 16 new schools in the past number of years, two of which are opening this week, but we did not build any for many years before that, so we need to continue to prioritise and invest in special schools, special education provision, new classrooms and additional accommodation. Where there is an actual demand for school places where they do not currently exist, we have to prioritise that.

In certain demographic areas where there is that demographic increase, be they in my county of Meath or in Kildare, Wicklow or, of course, Dublin and other counties, we have to be able to respond and cater to it. While we have to prioritise providing physical infrastructure for people where it does not exist, that is not to say that other projects will not be able to progress at different stages. There will be that prioritisation based on the fact that we have a budget, though. We are not going to be able to progress everything at the same time or maybe in the timeline that some people would like.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I appreciate that in terms of need, the budget and so on, but the point is that there is such a demand for the amalgamation of the two schools. It appears there is a one-size-fits-all, arbitrary metric when it comes to the capital infrastructure project.

Will the Minister consider meeting me and the school principals to hear some of the issues that the schools are experiencing outlined for her and consider some funding for the schools to amalgamate? There is a significant need for it to happen in terms of education. I ask the Minister, along with officials in her Department, to please meet me and the schools’ principals to discuss the consultation that so people in Claremorris and, indeed, in the Minister’s Department spent so many hours on. Will she meet me and the schools to discuss this project?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This is a project that I am aware of from engagement with my colleagues in the area. It is not that there is no desire for a particular project to progress or that any desire within a community is being ignored. Rather, where there are greater demands around the provision of school places, we must ensure they are prioritised ahead of areas where perhaps there already is a provision of school places, albeit not necessarily in the context or setting that pupils or the school community want. That is not to say that a project cannot progress in the future, but we have to plan out what the next number of years look like. We will continue to engage with the school community - I can say that very clearly - in the same way we engage with all of the schools that seek to develop new buildings, new infrastructure or additional accommodation schemes.

The overall capital budget is not just focused on new builds and additional accommodation. A significant proportion of it invests in minor works, summer works and emergency works. There are also ICT grants, as well as funding that is now going to be provided for our youth centres at a much higher rate than had been provided before. I am happy to engage with all schools. The Department will continue to engage with all schools, including the school the Deputy mentioned.