Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1244. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in respect of the ADAPT programme of school building project delivery for a school (details supplied), the number of third-party contracts issued to date under the programme; the number of contractors recruited as part of the programme; the number of contractor vacancies exist under the programme; the breakdown of third-party contractors by role (architecture, design, fire safety, project management, etc.); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43775/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The school building project referred to by the Deputy is included in the Department of Education and Youths’ Construction Programme.

The brief for the project is the delivery of a new 1,000 pupil post primary school and accommodation including 6 classrooms for children with special educational needs.

The project will be delivered under my Department's ADAPT 4 Programme – Programme Innovate. This programme will be led by Integrated Project Teams consisting of highly skilled and experienced design professionals, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors and various other consultants to deliver the projects.

AECOM as the Programme Manager are overseeing the procurement and appointment of these Integrated Project Teams. At present, the procurement process for the Integrated Project Team for this project at the Whitehall campus is currently being concluded and further details cannot be provided until the appointments are concluded and ratified.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1245. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in relation to the ADAPT programme of school building project delivery, the cost of the programme in 2024 and to date in 2025; and the projected cost for 2026 and 2027, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43776/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Following clarification from the Deputy, my Department understand the query relates to ADAPT 4 - Programme Innovate.

Since 2020, my Department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan, involving the completion of over 1,400 school building projects. Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities.

The Government has now concluded the review of the National Development Plan which sets out the capital allocations for each Government Department for the 2026 to 2030 period. The NDP outcome involves an allocation of €7.55bn for the Department of Education and Youth for the 2026 to 2030 period. I intend to prioritise investment in special education and school places as part of €7.55 Billion in funding for 2026-2030.

It is envisaged that the NDP funding will involve the following:

- It will facilitate the completion of circa 300 school building projects currently in construction to deliver over 22,300 school places in new and modernised accommodation across primary, post-primary and special schools. Most of these projects are expected to be completed over the course of 2026 and 2027.

- Have a strong emphasis on supporting children with special educational needs in relation to the annual requirements for special classes and places in special schools through continuing to maximise and re-purpose existing capacity as much as possible and provision of modular accommodation where determined necessary by the Department. It is envisaged that this will involve the provision of circa. 14,000 school places in special classes and special schools over the course of the 2026 to 2030 period to meet necessary annual requirements.

- In relation to project rollout for Large-Scale projects and Additional Accommodation Scheme projects, the approach will be to continue to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project rollout over the course of 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.

Each Department is now tasked to develop implementation plans based on their NDP Allocations. Our target will be to have this done and published in the Autumn. This will involve the Department’s Planning and Building Unit undertaking a review and analysis to determine the optimum outputs to be achieved from the €7.55bn allocation with a strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and in relation to project delivery ensuring a continued focus on affordability, value for money and functionality. The investment levels in relation to the ADAPT programme will be considered in this context.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1246. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide all progress reports including interim reports in respect of the ADAPT programme for school building projects on the programme in 2024, and to date in 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43777/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Following clarification with the Deputy, my Department understands the parliamentary question refers to ADAPT 4- Programme Innovate.

These are technical reports for use by the Integrated Design Teams (IPT) in relation to facilitating the development of project briefs into the initial stages of design and ultimately through detailed design and procurement stages. Such documentation is voluminous in nature and would contain commercially sensitive information. If there is a particular school that the Deputy wishes to enquire about then I can arrange for an update to be provided to the Deputy.

Programme Innovate is in the early stages and as per the scope of service, the Programme Manager has completed the coordinated procurement and appointment of companies to carry out initial site surveys for the first tranche of projects on the ADAPT 4 Programme. Those site survey reports will be made available to the incoming IPTs. The procurement of site surveys for the next tranche of projects will commence in due course.

The procurement process to appoint the Integrated Project Teams (IPT) for the first tranche of ADAPT 4 Projects is nearing conclusion. Upon appointment , the IPT will begin stage 1 of architectural planning - Preliminary design ( assessment of site and location suitability, and initial sketch scheme).

The Programme Manager is also carrying out other miscellaneous items that pertain to their scope of service at this early part of the the programme, and along with the procurement processes outlined above, progress is reported to my Department on a monthly basis on these technical issues.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1247. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in respect of the ADAPT programme for school building project delivery, the number of third-party contracts that have been issued to date as part of the programme, at a national level, by local authority; the number of contractors that have been recruited by local authority; the number of contractor vacancies that exist by local authority; the breakdown of third-party contractors by role architecture, design, fire safety, project management, and so on, by local authority, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43778/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Following clarification from the Deputy, my Department understands this parliamentary question refers to ADAPT 4 - Programme Innovate.

An external professional Programme Manager has been appointed by my Department to co-ordinate and drive Integrated Project Teams (IPTs) to achieve the best possible timeframe for the projects through the stages of Architectural Planning, to Tender and Construction.

Each project has an external IPT consisting of a consultant architect, consultant civil structural engineer, consultant building service engineer, consultant quantity surveyor, a fire safety consultant and PSDP consultant. Sub consultancies relating to landscape design, planning, acoustics, sustainability and BIM are also being procured.

AECOM as the Programme Manager are overseeing the procurement and appointment of the IPT’s on behalf of my Department. The procurement process to appoint IPTs for the first tranche of projects in ADAPT 4 are currently being concluded. It is anticipated that a Framework of IPTs will be established as part of this procurement process, to which my Department can tender for future projects as part of ADAPT 4 - Programme Innovate.

The projects are located across the country - table attached.