Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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1019. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on progression of the commencement of construction of a new school build (details supplied). [47095/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The project referred to by the Deputy is devolved for delivery to Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board (KCETB). It is a campus project.

The project brief is for the construction of two new multi-storey school buildings for new post primary schools for Coláiste Pobail Osraí and Kilkenny City Vocational School.

The project is currently at Stage 2b of the architectural process, which allows for detailed design/planning, obtaining the necessary statutory permissions and the preparation of tender documents. Once this process is complete, the next stage is tendering for a contractor and then onwards to construction in due course.

While at this early stage it is not possible to provide a timeline for completion of the project. KCETB will be engaging directly with the school authority to keep it informed of progress.

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. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million approved by Government has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for my department to €1.6 billion.

In July the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026-2030 under the National Development Plan. As part of this NDP allocation my department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. In relation to project rollout for Large-Scale projects and Additional School 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.

My department is now preparing an NDP implementation plan which is due for publication later in the Autumn. This plan will optimise outputs from the NDP allocations, with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is insufficient, and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money, and meets functional needs.

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 to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.