Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers was approved a project under my Department's Additional School Accommodation scheme for the provision of a one mainstream classroom and one special education teaching room. The responsibility for delivering the project has been devolved to the school authority.

My Department provided advice to the school's Design Team on their Stage 2b architectural report in March 2023 and has provided ongoing engagement and support subsequently leading to a revised Stage 2b submission by the school authority in November 2023. This report is presently being evaluated from both technical and financial standpoints in compliance with the guidelines of the Public Spending Code.

My Department has a strong track record of delivery of school building projects. Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested around €4.5 billion in schools throughout the country. Around 800 school building projects have been completed and 300 other projects are under construction.

We continue to have a strong pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme. My Department has an overall pipeline of some 1300 projects across the school system. The current status of all projects is listed on a county by county basis at www.gov.ie. and this is updated on a regular basis. Under the next phase of the school building programme, individual school building projects will be authorised to proceed to construction subject to assessment of tender reports and relevant due diligence by the Department’s Planning and Building Unit in line with the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines.

School building projects under construction involve an overall State investment of over €1.2 billion with most of these projects due for completion in 2024 and 2025. This is a record level of investment and highlights the Department’s very strong track record in providing additional capacity and modern facilities for our school communities.

The Department’s approach is to maximise the usage of existing capacity in the school estate and, in tandem with this, to manage the progression of the existing pipeline of projects within available budgets and in line with the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines. This allows the Department to keep a strong focus on the provision of additional capacity to cater for demographics, new housing developments and the roll-out of additional special classes for children with additional needs. The Department’s Modular Accommodation Programme is also used to provide additional capacity in the school estate to meet urgent requirements.

The Department has always operated a tightly prioritised approach to the school building programme, focused over recent years on the delivery of additional capacity where required, and this will continue to be the case.

My Department is committed to ensuring appropriate accommodation is available for the pupils in the school referred to by the Deputy and will ensure that this school's project as for all projects on our school building programme is subject to the due diligence required under the public Infrastructure Guidelines. It is a challenging construction environment across all sectors (Education, Housing, Transport etc.) and my Department is also required to manage the timing, scope and cost of individual projects to remain within budgetary parameters for the overall programme – this involves constant review throughout the project lifecycle. My Department will be in contact with the school directly on the outcome of this review.