2026-02-12

96. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Youth the school building and refurbishment projects in Dublin 24 that will be included in the NDP sectoral investment plan; when they will be included; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11024/26]

I want to ask about the school building and refurbishment projects in Dublin 24 that are included in the national development plan, NDP, sectoral investment plan. As far as I know, there are 105 projects listed for the tranche for 2026 and 2027. Only one of those is in Dublin 24 and there are zero in Tallaght despite plenty of schools having a very desperate need. I know Government backbenchers are giving out about the number of projects in Galway. Ten of the projects are in Galway, which is 10% of the projects, when Galway only has 5% of the population.

The Deputy will be aware I recently published the €7.55 billion NDP sectoral investment plan for the education and youth sectors for 2026 out to 2030. Of the €7.55 billion investment it is envisaged that €5 billion of that will be used for project roll-out to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings. An additional €2.25 billion of the NDP funding will focus on supporting the existing school estates, including maintenance, minor works, and the climate action summer work scheme. Project roll-out under the NDP will continue on a prioritised basis within the parameters of available funding to meet the most urgent needs for provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. In this regard, I have published a list of 105 school building projects in the first tranche to proceed to tender and construction in 2026 and 2027. These projects were prioritised with a strong focus on maximising existing capacity and prioritising project roll-out to meet the most urgent needs. This list includes two significant projects in Dublin 24 to provide a new 1,000 pupil building for Firhouse Educate Together Secondary School and a new 16-classroom primary school for Scoil Chrónáin in Rathcoole. These projects are in addition to €193 million in capital funding for Dublin 24 schools between 2020 and 2025. During that period, a total of 23 schools were upgraded, either through provision of new school buildings, a large-scale extension or the provision of modular accommodation. In addition, seven school projects in Dublin 24 are currently under construction. To give a breakdown for Dublin, between 2020 and 2025, the Department of Education provided €1.7 billion in capital funding for schools. Over this period, 244 schools were upgraded, either through provision of a new school building, a large extension or the provision of modular buildings. There are currently 64 school projects in Dublin under construction and 20 school projects will go to tender or construction either this year and next year.

Could the Minister respond to the suggestion that has come from Government backbenchers that, effectively, there is some parish-pump parochialism going on in terms of the inclusion of certain schools in these tranches? There are ten projects in Galway, which has 5% of the population of the country, compared with 22 in Dublin - approximately 21% of the projects - where in the region of 27% of the population lives. The Minister might want to take the opportunity to respond to that suggestion, which, I again stress, is coming from Government backbenchers. There is nothing in Tallaght, although there are plenty of schools there that are in desperate need. I want to highlight the case of one. I have spoken about this over a number of years in the Dáil. St. Aidan's in Brookfield is an amazing school. It has amazing staff and amazing students but the building is in a horrendous state. A new building is needed. The school has spent millions on emergency works just to keep the existing building patched together, but it has not dealt with the leaks in the roof and the white stuff coming out of the windows. It is not possible to the windows because the grilles on the outside have become corroded and are stuck to the frames. I will come back on this. The school desperately needs a new building.

I reiterate that €193 million in capital funding was provided between 2020 and 2025 in Dublin 24. There are seven school projects under construction in Dublin 24. Some 23 schools have been upgraded, either through the provision of new school buildings or large-scale extensions. That is not the end of the matter, however, because this is a rolling programme out to 2030. My Department will continue to engage with patrons and schools across the country, including in Deputy Murphy's constituency and in Dublin, to inform targeted and prioritised capital investment. That will include the identification of any urgent required works or capacity. In relation to Galway, a full county-by-county breakdown has been published to clearly show the full scale of delivery and expenditure under the NDP. That breakdown covers delivery and expenditure over recent years. The criteria for identifying the 105 prioritised projects included the condition of the school, projects in areas where there were capacity pressures, growing demographics and projects in the pipeline. Galway is a large county with a significant number of schools. It includes the city and town areas which are experiencing demographic growth, as are Kildare, Cork and Dublin. The Deputy will see from the list that five of the 45 stage 3 projects - that is, already tendered projects - in the county include a campus in Athenry for two Irish-medium schools, which is an area of demographic growth. Of the three stage 3 projects, two are in Galway West, my constituency.

I thank the Minister.

I will come back to the Deputy with further details.

I want to stress the point about St. Aidan's in Brookfield. A previous Minister visited the school and agreed that the building is simply not suitable. It dates from the 1980s. There was an article in The Irish Times about it that contained a series of pictures that I took when I visited the school previously. If the Minister visits the school, she will see that the building is not acceptable. There is a kind of penny-wise-and-pound-foolish approach to these emergency works to patch up roofs that just cannot be patched up and that are continually affected by leaks. The facade of the building is broken down and crumbling. It is damp and paint will not adhere to it. There is just problem after problem. The building is no longer suitable. I invite the Minister to come to the school to meet with the staff and the wonderful students there. If she does, she will see that there is space there to construct a second building and that there would be no need to decant students from one to the other. There is enough space for a new building. There is a growing population in the area, which is adjacent to City West and so on.

I thank the Deputy and call on the Minister to respond.

I acknowledge there are more schools that need investment and that is why this is a plan that goes out to 2030. What the Department of education will be doing now is engaging with schools across the country. For the first time, by the end of this year, the Department will have completed an energy and condition survey of all of our 4,000 schools across the country. That will really help with the prioritisation. It will also look at the demographics in an area, enrolments, the condition of the school and how we can prioritise over the next few years and out to 2030. That work will be led by the Department. Again, this is the first two years of a national development plan out to 2030. If there are schools that need remediation works, there is funding in place through the emergency works scheme and the summer works scheme. The engagement that is being carried out by the Department through the energy and conditions survey is evidence based. That will feed into prioritisation for the next tranche.