Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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373. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the up to date position with the provision of a new secondary school in county Kildare (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29328/26]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The brief for this project is to provide a new permanent school building for the school, 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 1,000 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 Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) (formally An Bord Pleanála) in October 2024 and the Design Team received ACP’s decision to grant planning permission in early February 2025.

The project is currently at Architectural Planning Stage 3 – Tender Action and Award. The tender report has been received and reviewed by the department. The letter of intent (LOI) has issued to the successful tenderer in March 2026. The Design Team are currently working on the Letter of Acceptance (LOA). Upon issue of the LOA, Department officials will be in contact with the School's authorities regarding next steps.

As the Deputy will be aware, I have recently published the €7.55 billion NDP Sectoral Investment Plan for the Education and Youth Sectors for the period 2026 to 2030. This NDP Sectoral Plan involves a very strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard there will be a strong special education dimension to project rollout.

Of the total €7.55 billion investment it is envisaged that circa. €5 billion will be used for project rollout to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings across the Large Scale, Additional Accommodation, Modular, and Annual September Accommodation Needs programmes.

My department will continue to build on the progress made over recent years with the continued rollout of these projects on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. In this regard, I have also published a list of the 105 school building projects in the first tranche to proceed to construction or tender over 2026 and 2027. This list includes the project at Curragh Community College and 12 other projects in County Kildare.

These projects are in addition to €409.43 million in capital funding for County Kildare schools between 2020 and 2025. Over that period, a total of 47 schools have been upgraded either through provision of a new school building, a large-scale extension or provision of modular accommodation. There are also currently 8 school projects in County Kildare under construction.

Another 12 school projects will go to tender or construction in 2026 and 2027, and this summer, 5 schools are approved to undergo works as part of the Summer Works Scheme/Climate Action scheme. In addition, since 2020 a total of 82 special classes have been opened in Kildare, 19 of which were sanctioned for September 2026.

The 105 prioritised projects will progress to tender and/or construction on a rolling basis over the course of 2026 and 2027 and within the context of NDP funding parameters. The timing of project progression will reflect the need to carefully manage the rollout of these projects to construction on a controlled basis to ensure that projects are delivered efficiently, align with the requirements of the Infrastructure Guidelines and Capital Works Management Framework and remain within the parameters of NDP funding.

Department officials will continue to engage closely patron bodies, management bodies and schools with respect to the timing of the progression of projects to tender and/or construction over the period 2026 to 2027. This will include continued engagement with Curragh Community College with respect to the progression of its project to construction.

The current status of all projects continues to be set out under item number ten at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/collections/building-works-for-the-construction-extension-and-refurbishment-of-schools/#school-building-projects-large-scale-additional-accommodation-scheme-current-status-lists. This is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.