Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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522. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current status of the masterplan to be developed for the new educational campus to include a school (details supplied). [48335/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy will be delivered as part of a shared educational campus which will provide two new 1,000 pupil post primary schools with six classrooms for children with special education needs, a new eight-classroom primary school with accommodation and two classrooms for children with special education needs and a new 20 classroom special school at the Swords Road campus in Whitehall.

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 and the procurement process for the team for this project at the Whitehall campus is currently being concluded.

Upon appointment, the Integrated Project Team will begin the initial stage of architectural planning – Stage 1, where a site and current building assessment is carried out, and initial design sketch schemes are created.

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 Department will continue to keep the schools and their patron body updated on progress and next steps.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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523. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the tender process for the appointment of the multidisciplinary design team consultants was completed, relating to the new educational campus to include a school (details supplied). [48336/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy will be delivered as part of a shared educational campus which will provide two new 1,000 pupil post primary schools with 6 classrooms for children with special education needs, a new eight-classroom primary school with accommodation and two classrooms for children with special education needs and a new 20 classroom special school at the Swords Road campus in Whitehall.

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 and the procurement process for the team for this project at the Whitehall campus is currently being concluded.

Upon appointment, the Integrated Project Team will begin the initial stage of architectural planning – Stage 1, where a site and current building assessment is carried out, and initial design sketch schemes are created.