Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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65. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the permanent school building application by a school (details supplied); and if further guidance will be issued to the school regarding the next steps to proceed. [57637/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The school referred to by the Deputy contacted my Department in March 2025 seeking an update on its proposed additional accommodation. Following some initial engagement on the matter, my Department wrote to the school in June 2025 requesting clarification on a number of items. The Department is currently awaiting receipt of this clarification.

Since 2020, the Department of Education and Youth 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 the 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. This will be the context for assessing all project rollout for the 2026 to 2030 period including in relation to this school.