Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking this topic which is not in his Department's remit.The reason I am raising the issue of St. Francis School in Portlaoise again - everyone has heard me speak about this school in the Chamber many times - is that the vulnerable children in County Laois cannot wait any longer. This is a school that provides care for children with additional needs and there has just been one delay after another. St. Francis School in Portlaoise is doing incredible work. It supports some of the most vulnerable children in our community, who require specialist education, care and support to reach their full potential. Despite the dedication of staff and leadership, the reality on the ground is quite stark. Right now the school is trying to accommodate 20 classes in just 14 classrooms, even with two modular units recently added. It is just not sustainable. It is not fair on the staff and, more important, it is not fair on the children. This year alone, there were 50 applications for 12 places. That means dozens of children with additional needs have been left without an appropriate school place and behind every one of those numbers is a child and a family and they are under immense pressure.

In 2021, the school was promised a modular building. We are at the stage now where, finally, the stage 2b report and tender documents have been submitted to the Department and the project has been identified as a priority. We finally have some movement, but there is a fear that we will end up having another delay and that is why I tabled this Commencement matter. It is important to ensure the application is expedited now and that the work can start this summer. The board of management is ready. The school is ready. The need is urgent. We just cannot have another year where we have to keep telling parents they do not have a place in this school and have to leave the county again. We cannot continue to open services without the infrastructure to support them. I hope the Minister of State will tell me today that he can confirm this project will be expedited without delay, that we can ensure planning permission will be granted as quickly as possible and that he will commit to enabling construction to begin this summer as intended.

I commend the work of the principal, Mr. John Moran, and all the staff, including the SNAs and the escorts. They do incredible work. The children deserve access to the right education in the right setting at the right time, so I hope we can make some proper progress with this.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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Before I call the Minister of State, I welcome the students and all those visiting from the national learning network in Kildare who are guests of Deputy Mark Wall, from Kildare South.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the guests from Kildare. I hope they enjoy their time in Leinster House.

The Senator is right. I think everyone is now aware of St. Francis special school in this House and the Dáil, right across Leinster House and Government buildings, because she raises it so regularly. Fair play to her for representing her constituents in that way. I will try to give the most accurate update possible and I hope it will be of some comfort to the Senator and the school staff and principal.

The school referred to by the Senator was approved to enter the Department's pipeline for school building projects under the additional school accommodation scheme to provide a four-classroom special educational needs, SEN, base. This project is devolved to the school authority for delivery. The project is currently at stage 2b - which is developed design - of the architectural design process. This stage includes obtaining all statutory approvals, preparing a set of fully detailed tender documents and preparing an accurate pre-tender cost plan. The stage 2b report was submitted to the Department in March 2026 - this month - and is currently under review from technical and cost perspectives. All projects, including this one, are subject to the full due-diligence requirements set out in the Department’s infrastructure guidelines. Managing timing, scope and cost is crucial to staying within budgetary limits for the overall program.

More recently, two SEN classrooms were provided at this school under the Department's devolved SEN repurposing and modular accommodation programme. The approved modular accommodation was completed in November 2025. As the Senator will be aware, the Department recently published the €7.55 billion national development plan, NDP, sectoral investment plan for the education and youth sectors for the period 2026 to 2030. This NDP sectoral plan involves a very strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritising school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard, there will be a strong special education dimension to project roll-out, which should augur well for St. Francis School. Of the total €7.55 billion investment it is envisaged that approximately €5 billion will be used for project roll-out to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings across the large scale, additional accommodation, modular and annual September accommodation needs programmes. The Department will continue to build on the progress made over recent years with the continued roll-out of these projects on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs, with the provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities.

In this regard, the Department has published a list of the 105 school building projects in the first tranche that will proceed to construction or tender in 2026 and 2027. The 105 prioritised projects will progress to tender and-or construction on a rolling basis over the course of 2026 and 2027 within the context of NDP funding parameters. The timing of project progression will reflect the need to carefully manage the roll-out of these projects to construction on a controlled basis to ensure that projects are delivered efficiently, align with the requirements of the infrastructure guidelines and capital works management framework and remain within the parameters of NDP funding.

It is at stage 2b, developed design, at the moment. The Senator asked specific questions about planning. Sometimes planning issues are outside our control, but my understanding is that every effort is being made to ensure all relevant statutory requirements are complied with to ensure the build can commence as soon as possible and I will try to get more information in that regard for the Senator.

Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. I would appreciate if he could get me more information specifically on this. I appreciate the response. I understand that 105 school building projects are being brought to construction or tender in 2026-27. I hope with the priority of St. Francis School that it will be moved forward as quickly as possible and that we are not looking at summer 2027 to start building. I would love if the Minister of State could come back to me with updated information.

I understand everything has to go through all the processes to make sure we adhere to all the standards with the planning. This is long awaited and long overdue, so I would welcome the introduction of the construction phase.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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To recap, the 2b stage includes obtaining all statutory approvals. That includes planning permission. Sometimes it can take time but it needs to happen as quickly as possible. Then there are another few phases to go through, including preparing fully detailed tender documents and an accurate pre-tender cost plan. Those are the elements that can be expedited. I do not see why they should take a long time. Planning permission can be a bit more difficult because of the statutory requirements in terms of time and so on. I appreciate that the Senator raised it again. She has raised it multiple times. The entire Houses and Government buildings are aware of the Senator's dedication to this project. I hope that not far from now we will have a good news story about the commencement of the work.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his time taking those two Commencement matters today. I thank the Senator for raising that important matter.