Written answers

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Department of Education and Skills

School Accommodation

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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661. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when approval will issue in respect of a proposal (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1988/25]

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department is in receipt of a request for grant aid for a proposed land acquisition under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme from the school in question.

I am pleased to confirm that approval was given under the Department's Modular Framework, for 2x Special education classroom & 6x Mainstream classroom and this project was delivered in 2023. The Department also recently provided funding for the refurbishment of an engineering room at the school in question.

The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and Special Education Needs (SEN) accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation.

Since 2020, my department has invested over €5.7 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1,150 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes new school buildings some of which are being delivered in phases. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.3bn.

The department previously announced that close to 90 projects, including 28 new school buildings, would be authorised to proceed from tender stage to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025. In total, around €800 million will be invested in these projects under the department’s Large Scale Capital Programme and Additional Accommodation Scheme for essential classroom accommodation.

Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 550,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate.

This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure.? The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

In County Cavan, alone from 2020 to date, the Department has invested €75.86 million in school infrastructure and completed 22 school building projects.

This significant investment is intended to allow us to move forward with certainty on modernising our school infrastructure with a real focus on sustainability, for school communities across Ireland. The strengthened focus on refurbishment of existing school stock will have different strands and will include a deep-energy retrofit programme in support of our 2030 and 2050 Climate Action Goals.

In general, demographics have been falling at primary level and are due to continue to decrease. The school planning area in question peaked in 2022. Therefore, the Department considers it prudent to maximise the use of existing spare accommodation capacity at primary level in the first instance, before considering any applications for further accommodation needs. This is in line with public spending requirements.

As such I can confirm that the Department has no current plans for land acquisition for the school in question and Cavan-Monaghan ETB has been advised of the position.

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