Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

480. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the up-to-date position with the provision of a new school building in County Kildare (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51740/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There continues to be an increasing need to provide additional special school places to support children with complex needs. To meet this need, sixteen new special schools have been established in recent years, and capacity has been expanded in a number of others. Five of these were established for the 2025/26 school year in counties, Cork, Dublin (2), Monaghan and Tipperary.

The new special schools established over recent years have focused on providing additional places in our largest urban areas – Dublin and Cork. The department and NCSE have already begun planning in relation to further expanding special school capacity for the 2026/27 school year. It is estimated that a further 300 new special school places may be required each year for the coming years.

When looking to provide additional capacity the department’s preferred option is to increase provision in existing special schools, if possible. Where this is not possible in a region, the department and NCSE will consider the need to establish a new special school.

In planning for increased special school places, the department and NCSE review all of the available data on the growing need for special school places across the country. This involves a detailed analysis of enrolment trends and the potential for existing special schools in a region to expand.

Arrangements are in train to provide accommodation to facilitate the expansion of Craddockstown Special School. It is intended that existing modular accommodation will be repurposed to facilitate this. It is anticipated this will be available to the school by December 2025. The school patron Kildare and Wicklow Education Training Board (ETB) in consultation with the NCSE has made contingency arrangements in the intervening period. My department is aware that the school is engaging directly with the parents in this regard.

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements remain available for children with special educational needs and will continue to review and monitor the situation for further special school capacity in South Kildare.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

481. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the up-to-date position with the provision of a new school building in County Kildare (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51751/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The brief for this project is to provide a new permanent school for the school referred to by the Deputy, and this project is designed to be delivered in 2 phases; Phase 1 will deliver accommodation for 425 students and Phase 2 will deliver the remaining accommodation to provide for a Long Term Projected Enrolment of 1000 students, at the former Magee Barracks site in Kildare.

The Design Team lodged their initial application for planning permission for the preferred design option with the Local Authority in October 2023. The Design Team subsequently received a substantial Request for Further Information (RFI) from the Local Authority in respect of the planning application. Following the Design Teams RFI response to the Local Authority, the Design Team received the Local Authority’s initial decision to grant planning permission, with conditions, on 09 October 2024.

The initial grant of planning decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanala and the Design Team received An Bord Pleanala’s decision to grant planning permission in early February 2025.

The project is currently at Architectural Planning Stage 3 – Tender Action and Award. The Design Team issued the tender to the Departments Design & Build Framework of Contractors, with a return date in May 2025. The Design Team have recently reviewed the tenders received and have submitted their report to the Department with their recommendations, for review and approval.

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.