2026-03-19

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical debate. This is the second time I have raised a Topical matter about three primary schools, St. John Bosco Junior Boys School, St. John Bosco Senior Boys School and Mary Help of Christians Girls National School. I want to focus on the long delay in the rebuild project for these three schools. The schools are just off the Navan Road in Dublin 7, and serve the communities of Ashtown and the Navan Road. They are great schools, and my colleague Councillor Feljin Jose and I have visited them. They are operating out of incredibly old and rundown buildings. There are musty prefabs, single-glazed windows and kids learning in cold classrooms. They are three distinct schools, but the three schools have come together with the vision of having an educational campus on the site. I am sure the Minister of State knows that bringing together three separate schools with three separate management structures is a real challenge, but the schools are so committed to this project that they have done it, and they have come together. However, there are two big problems. First, this project is not on the list of priority school projects from the 2026-27 list that the Government launched with great fanfare in January of this year. Second, and more immediately, there seems to be a real blockage in advancing this vital project past stage 2A of the school design project. I was in contact with the three schools and with parents from the schools in late 2024 and across all of last year. In December of last year, I was able to hold a Topical debate in the House, in particular on the Department's delay in holding that stage 2A meeting with the schools’ design team. At the time, the Minister was not able to give me a date for when that vital stage 2A meeting would happen between the Department and the schools’ design team. We are now three months on from that Topical debate. I had a parliamentary question in two weeks ago, and I also wrote directly to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, two weeks ago. In the replies I got to those queries, I still have not been able to get a date for that meeting. Of course, in January, we saw that long-awaited list of the priority projects, and this project was not on it. The parents and the school saw that, and they noticed that they are not seen as a priority now. I have no doubt the Minister of State has a lengthy reply from the Department. I am sure it will recount a long history of engagement between the Department and the relevant schools. With respect, I know the history. We do not need to go through all of that this evening. What I really want to know is, first, what the date is for the long-delayed meeting between the schools’ design team and the Department of education so they can move past the stage 2A process and, second, how this project can get on the Government's priority list. It is 6 p.m. on a Thursday. Anything else is not really of huge relevance right now. Will the Minister of State give me a date for this meeting? Will she tell me how the redevelopment of these three schools can get on the priority list?

I thank the Deputy for the question. It is clear that he has been in the position I am in now, and he understands the circumstances. I must give him the response that I have been provided with. In whatever way I can, I will try to address the Deputy’s questions. They give me the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister, to outline the current position in relation to the joint school project for St. John Bosco Junior Boys School, St. John Bosco Senior Boys School and Mary Help of Christians Girls National School, all in Dublin 7. This joint school building project will deliver two new 16-classroom primary schools with additional classrooms for children with special educational needs for both the senior boys' school and the girls' school, and a new 11-classroom primary school with additional classrooms for children with special educational needs for the junior boys' school. Initially, as the Deputy pointed out, it had been anticipated that this joint project would be delivered in the form of an extension and refurbishment. However, due to a scope change to include an increase in the number of classrooms for children with special educational needs, it was decided that new school buildings would be provided. The design team submitted the initial stage 1 report in April 2023, and following the submission of an addendum report in August 2023, the project was approved to the next stage. The design team submitted its stage 2A submission report in January 2024. Upon review, some key concerns were identified by the Department. From January 2024 to May 2025, there was significant communication between the design team and the Department to discuss and assist in progressing the stage 2A submission to include a review and audit of the floor area schedules, and to refine some design elements to meet the approved schedule of accommodation. Upon receipt of the revised stage 2A report, Department officials carried out an initial review, and in early June 2025, a further meeting was held, with the wider design team, school authorities and Department officials in attendance. At that meeting, the school was provided with a progress update and advised that the design team was due to submit an addendum stage 2A report to the Department. The outstanding information for the addendum stage 2A report was received by the Department on 31 October last year and is under review by Department officials. In July the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026 to 2030 under the national development plan. As the Deputy is aware, as part of this 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 the 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 to provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the course of 2026 to 2030. Deputy O'Gorman asked about a date for a meeting with the school design team and how one gets on the priority list. I suspect that virtually every TD in the Dáil would like an answer to that question. That does not take away from the fact that he wants and needs it and these schools need to hear about it. I will pass on his request to the Minister and, hopefully, she will be able to give him some assistance.

I thank the Minister of State for her response. I recognise that she is responding on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and she is from a different Department. I am disappointed with the response she provided from the Department of education. Again, there has been a failure to give a date for this really important meeting between the Department and the school's design team. There is a consequence to this delay because due to the addendum report, which was given almost five months ago - officials in the Department were not being given the full detail on 31 October; they were being given an extra piece of information that they sought – the school missed the opportunity to be on the 2026-2027 priority list. There is a clear consequence to the fact that this addendum report has not been fully reviewed by the Department and that the meeting did not take place. That consequence is that it is now likely that this school will not even get funding until post-2027. These three schools have been ready and willing to take this important step, advance this project, and give kids in three really good schools a better condition of education. It is really disappointing at this stage. The delay has real consequences. It is pushing back the ability of this project to be delivered in the lifetime of many of the students who are currently in these schools in those cold classrooms. The Minister of State has indicated that she will ask the Minister for education, Deputy Naughton, to come back to me in writing with a date. That is all I can ask for today. I will continue to ask for this because I do not think this level of delay for just one meeting is acceptable.

I thank the Deputy. I recognise there are schools with important building projects that are not included in the first tranche of prioritised projects. As part of planning ahead for the next tranche of projects to progress to tender, the Department-led prioritisation process will continue over the course of 2026 and 2027 to assess and evaluate the progression of individual projects through the design pipeline, having regard to the continual need to maximise existing capacity and determine the prioritised need going forward. This process will involve engagement with key stakeholders and individual schools and will ultimately inform the next tranche of programme roll-out to tender. The Department-led energy and condition survey of the school estate which will be finalised later in 2026 will provide an additional evidence base for assessing priorities. Based on this ongoing prioritisation process, some projects may be added to the list over the course of 2026 and 2027, having regard to their prioritisation and urgency of need and taking account also of the ongoing ability to progress them to tender and construction within the parameters of overall funding. Where appropriate, the Department will also assess opportunities to undertake advance enabling works for the most urgent and complex projects to facilitate a smooth progress to construction in 2028 and beyond. I promise I will ask the Minister the question the Deputy posed to me.