Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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79. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware that adequate and safe working and learning conditions are not provided for all members of the school community in a Limerick primary school (details supplied); if she will provide an alternative avenue of funding that would allow essential interim works to proceed, whether through exceptional sanction or as enabling works linked to the overall capital project which has already been approved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6958/26]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The school was approved to enter the Department’s pipeline of school building projects under the Additional School Accommodation Scheme for the provision of 2 mainstream classrooms, 9 SET rooms, and a principal’s office. This project has been devolved to the school authority for delivery.

Following the Department’s superseding approval in Q2 2025 to include the second mainstream classroom, the Department now awaits the submission of the Stage 1/2A report from the school authority for review.

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.

The NDP Implementation Plan for the Education and Youth sector and the first tranche of projects to progress to tender or construction will be published by my Department shortly. This NDP Implementation 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.