Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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205. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a school (details supplied) will be fully developed and end its current prefabrication status; if there are any plans to incorporate the school meals scheme at the school in the absence of existing facilities; if there are any plans for traffic safety/calming measures in the vicinity of the school in the absence of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [67270/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy will be delivered under my Department's ADAPT programme. ADAPT is an acronym for the "Accelerated Delivery of Architectural Planning and Tendering".

The ADAPT programme uses a professional external Project Manager to co-ordinate and drive the Design Team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of Architectural Planning to Tender and Construction. The project brief is to provide a new 8 classroom Primary School with 2 Special Educational Needs class (expandable to 16 classroom if needed in the future) at Broadmeadow CNS Mooretown, off Rathbeale Road, Swords, Dublin.

Following the Stage 1 stakeholders meeting in January 2025, where the Principal, representatives from DDLETB, all Design Team members, the Project Manager and Department officials were in attendance, the project was approved to progress to Stage 2(a) of Architectural Planning.

Stage 2(a) – Developed Design - is a crucial element of the architectural planning process as it is at this stage that the design is developed to a stage where it can be fully cost planned and prepared to lodge for statutory approvals.

During stage 2(b) of the process, my Department liaises with the Design Team and local council to discuss traffic calming and safety measures which are then included as part of the planning application and detailed design of the major project.

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 roll-out 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 roll-out over the course of 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs. It is planned that circa 80 school building projects will progress to construction across 2026 and 2027 as part of a 2-year rolling programme.

All Government departments are expected to publish their sectoral NDP Implementation Plans shortly. My department’s 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.