Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

I thank Senator O’Reilly for raising this matter because it gives me the opportunity to update the House, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Helen McEntee, on the current position regarding the new building project for Bailieborough Community School, Virginia Road, Bailieborough, County Cavan.

The project referred to was originally approved to enter the Department of Education and Youth’s pipeline for school building projects under the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme to provide four general classrooms and two specialist rooms. However, following further engagement with the school and a review of the accommodation requirements, the scope of the project was reassessed. On foot of this review, the approved brief was expanded to provide eight general classrooms, four special education tuition rooms, one music room, one textiles room, one art room, one project store, one multimedia room, two science laboratories with one preparation area, one library and a general purpose dining hall, along with reconfiguration of the existing music room into a mainstream classroom. The project has been devolved for delivery to the school authority.

The stage 1 early design report was submitted to Department of Education officials in late 2021. Following a period of communication and clarification with the school, the Department undertook a comprehensive review of the project from both a technical and cost perspective in accordance with the requirements of the public spending code. Subsequently, approval to advance this project to stage 2a with the incorporation of comments and recommendations from the Department was granted in quarter 4 of 2022.

A stage 2a developed design report was received by the Department in quarter 3 of 2023 and reviewed by the Department with approval to progress to stage 2b planning granted in quarter 2 of 2024, a matter to which the Senator already referred. The Department of education is awaiting the submission of the stage 2b post-planning report. Full grant of planning was received in quarter 1 of 2025 from the planning authorities. Once this is submitted for evaluation, the report must include all statutory requirements associated with the planning process.

At this early stage, it is not possible to predict when this school building project will go to construction, nor when it will be practically completed, as progress depends upon many contingent factors that can arise throughout the process. Senator O'Reilly made specific reference to the prequalification process. That is something she can follow up directly with the Department and the Minister on. I would not know the particular details, but it is something she referenced. Officials will be looking into the specific matter she raised, but she might follow up formally with the Department.

Since 2020, the Department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of more than 1,400 school building projects.Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million approved by Government has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for the Department to €1.6 billion. In July, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.5 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 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 to 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.