Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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457. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to confirm that she has received a letter from the principal and the chairperson of the board of management of a school (details supplied), outlining the vital need for a new school campus on the green field site they have secured for the purpose, at no cost to the State; and if she will accept their invitation to visit the school to see at first hand the issues at stake, and meet and discuss this with them. [34483/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that officials in my department are in receipt of an application for capital funding from the school referred to by the Deputy and had ongoing correspondence with the school following this application.

I wish to advise you that all applications from schools for major capital works must be considered in the context of capacity requirements and climate action commitments. The priority of the Department continues to be the provision of required additional school places to meet demographic requirements as well as for children with special educational needs.

The Department is required to manage the allocated capital funding across all schools in the country. The Department’s approach is to maximise the usage of existing capacity in schools 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.

The Department can identify opportunities to transform existing schools as part of energy retrofit projects, and the Department’s Pathfinder programme has been developing effective solutions in this regard, as we plan for a future wider rollout.

The plan for working this through at national scale will be informed by the outcome of an Energy and Condition survey of all schools which is currently underway.

It has already been completed across schools in five counties and the remaining counties are due for completion by mid-2026. The subsequent analysis of this significant amount of data will take some time but will help determine priorities going forward in relation to retrofit and refurbishment projects.

The process may ultimately identify a requirement for the replacement of some accommodation, but this is not expected to be widespread. This overall process is particularly valuable in facilitating a proportionate assessment of a school’s accommodation upgrade needs relative to all other schools and allow an effective prioritisation of capital investment.

Since 2020, my department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan (NDP), involving the completion of over 1,375 school building projects.? Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. A recent Government decision has approved €210m supplementary capital funding for my department to support the provision of special education accommodation and meet school place needs. This brings the total capital allocation for 2025 for my department to €1.6bn.

As part of the NDP Review process, all departments, including my department, are currently engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform with respect to NDP allocations for the period 2026-2030. It is expected that there will be clarity on these allocations over the course of the summer period, and this will allow my department to plan its capital investment programme for the 2026 to 2030 period in line with prioritised needs and reflecting, as appropriate, wider Government priorities. Maximising existing capacity in schools to meet needs is very important. The progression of prioritised individual projects to meet the most urgent needs in the 2026 to 2030 period that cannot be met through existing capacity across schools in the local area will be considered on a rolling basis from Autumn onwards after the NDP allocations are finalised.

As you may be aware, the school has already received significant recent capital funding, although it has also refused proposed investment in the existing school which the Department believes would have dealt with some of the more immediate issues for the school. My department has had ongoing engagement with the school in this context and is not in a position to consider a large scale major project at this time for the reasons I outlined.