Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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391. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on when a school building project (details supplied) will proceed, given the impending expiry of planning permission. [49427/26]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The major building project for the school referred to by the deputy is part of my Department's Employer Led Design programme and will deliver a 16 classroom primary school and accommodation, including 2 classrooms, for children with special educational needs on the permanent site at Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.

The project progressed to tender on the 28th February 2025. The tender returns were received on 02/05/2025. Tenders were evaluated by the Design Team and following due diligence carried out and discussions with the preferred tenderer, the company withdrew their tender. The department’s design team is now carrying out due diligence in relation to the next placed tenderer with a view to submitting a tender assessment report for my department’s consideration. Projects are subject to relevant due diligence at each stage in the process, within the context of overall programme and budgetary parameters. My department and the design team are monitoring the current progression of the project in terms of the planning permission and if necessary, will prepare the documentation for an application to extend the current planning permission ahead of its expiry later this year.

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 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 this project referred to be the Deputy.

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.