Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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263. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a school (details supplied) will receive permanent accommodation. [44733/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the school in question is located in a property provided by the patron. The Deputy will be aware that the immediate priority of my Department is providing 20,000 new and replacement school places each year, to ensure that every child has a school place.

The National Development Plan (NDP) provides for an €8.4 billion investment in school buildings over the period 2018 to 2027 to deliver on NDP and National Planning Framework objectives through addressing the twin priorities of catering for demographics and ensuring a strengthened focus on refurbishment of existing school stock. This investment will result in an almost doubling of the capital budget for school buildings - €540m in 2018 rising to an annual average of circa. €1 billion in the second half of the NDP period.

The strengthened focus on refurbishment of existing school stock will have different strands including prefab replacement, PE hall and school laboratory build and modernisation programmes as well as the commencement and progression of a deep energy retrofit of primary and post-primary schools built prior to 2008.