2026-01-20

This Topical Issue relates to Coláiste Daibhéid and its application under the additional school accommodation scheme. It is important to be open and honest in this place, and I declare an interest. This is where I attended secondary school and it is also where our 14-year-old currently attends in third year. All the same, the issue is substantial and it needs to be addressed because it has been carrying on for far too long. Coláiste Daibhéid is a school of around 200 children at this moment. It has a projected long-term enrolment of 300. It is an ETB school. Cork Education and Training Board is the patron. It is an Irish-medium school. It is one of the few schools left in Cork city centre. Partially because of that, its growth and development is seriously constrained by the lack of development of its current site. It is a relatively young school. It has been in place for about 33 years now. The location is in St. John's College in the city centre. The buildings are not purpose-built; they are old parts of St. John's College that were provided by the patron, the education and training board. Effectively, the school was never really built. Some extensions were added to existing buildings. One of these buildings is 150 years old. Níl na foirgnimh maith go leor ar chor ar bith. Tá siad róbheag agus níl go leor spáis ann. Tá roinnt de na foirgnimh sách sean. Caithfear athchóiriú a dhéanamh orthu. There is no sports hall, which is a huge constraint for any school. There is not an adequate reception area. The classrooms are not adequate to facilitate the potential growth of the school. It is separated across two separate buildings. The school was approved to enter the Department's pipeline for a project under the additional school accommodation scheme. Unfortunately, this has been going on since about 2018. The application is to build a multimedia room, a textiles room, a graphics room, a construction room, a technology preparation room, a science lab, a prep area, one project store, and, crucially, a potential sports hall. That is vitally important. This was submitted in its most recent round for stage 1 review, but that was on 29 July and the school has heard nothing since. That creates a huge difficulty for the school in being able to plan its way forward, and for the patron to plan the way forward and to go ahead. It is important that a hall is part of these proposals. Project Ireland 2040 has a commitment to a physical education hall build that ensures that students in all post-primary schools have access to state-of-the-art facilities, particularly in the context of roll-out of physical education as a leaving certificate subject. The hall is vitally important. It is also important in the context of students only having their classrooms to go to. There is no place to congregate. Tá sé tábhachtach chomh maith i bhfianaise thodhchaí na meánscolaíochta trí mheán na Gaeilge. There are eight Irish-medium primary schools in the city council area. This is one of three secondary schools. Clearly there is greater potential and a lack of provision. This is in the context of the then Minister, Joe McHugh, in 2019, stating: "There are ... 60,000 young people in Irish-medium schools right across the country and I want to see an ambitious target set to double that." This is a perfect opportunity to expand the school, to create that potential for the school to grow and to give it the modern facilities that it requires. I also make the point that the NCSE has been engaging with the school in relation to greater provision for autism classes and units. The buildings need to provide for that. I am looking for an update in relation to this, and to try to see that we can progress this beyond stage 1, that this can be approved in order that the school can get on with planning a building of the future.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the school building project for Coláiste Daibhéid, Cork. The project referred to by the Deputy was approved to enter the Department's pipeline for a project under the additional school accommodation scheme. The project will provide one multimedia room, one textiles room, one graphics room, one construction room, one technology prep area, one science laboratory, and prep area and one project store. The inclusion of a PE hall or general purpose dining hall depends on site feasibility, constraints and input from the local authority and heritage officer. The delivery of this project has been devolved to Cork Education and Training Board. The stage 1 report outlining the proposed design and costings was submitted to the Department in July 2025. This is currently under review from both a technical and cost perspective in accordance with the requirements of the public spending code. Once the review is completed, the outcome will be communicated to Cork Education and Training Board which will continue to engage directly with the school authorities to keep them fully informed of progress. The Department is committed to ensuring appropriate accommodation is available for all school pupils and will, in the wider context outlined, ensure that each school project on the school building programme is subject to the due diligence required under the public infrastructure guidelines. In July 2025, 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 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 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 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 construction will be published by the Department shortly. The 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 an area is insufficient and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs.

I appreciate the update. I hoped for a bit more regarding when we might get through the next phase. I appreciate that the Minister of State's Department does not have responsibility in that regard. I would appreciate if he could, on my behalf, bring this matter to the attention of the Minister. I note the presence of my constituency colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, who is also keen to support the school. Perhaps he could use his good offices to contact the Department as well. The school wants to get past this stage. It wants to get to the point of being able to develop all the things that have been outlined in terms of value for money. That is fine; it all makes sense. It is absolutely the case. I have no doubt that the education and training board, which is a very professional and capable organisation, has all of that is lined up. Will the Minister of State bring a couple of things back to the Department. He stated, "The inclusion of a PE hall or general purpose dining hall depends on site feasibility, constraints and input from the local authority and heritage officer." The school and patron have amply demonstrated the fact that what is proposed is viable and can be delivered, either in the basement or on the roof of the building. They have offered potential designs in that regard. This is a piece of community infrastructure. We are talking about bringing people into our cities to live, raise their families and work. The south parish does not have a huge number of community facilities. What is proposed here could be a resource for wider community in that part of the inner-city centre, namely the south parish, as opposed to just the school. At present, there are constraints on the ability to provide PE in the school. There is no place for people to have lunch on rainy days. Caithfimid freisin a thógáil san áireamh nach bhfuil go leor soláthair ann don mheánscolaíocht trí mheán na Gaeilge i gcathair Chorcaí. Níl ach trí mheánscoil i gcomparáid le hocht mbunscoil. Níl go leor áiteanna do leanaí ar mian leo dul go dtí an mheánscoil trí mheán na Gaeilge. There is not enough provision for Irish-medium secondary education. Expansion of this school is necessary to try in order to meet some of that growing demand across the city.

The Deputy is dead right. My colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, is fully supportive of the upgrade to this school. Last year, in the updated national development plan, €7.55 billion was committed in respect of educational investment. This will ensure the completion of the 300 or so school building projects already under construction, which will deliver over 22,300 new and modernised school places across primary and post-primary, the expansion of special education provision and the provision of a record 14,000 additional places in special education classrooms and new mainstream school capacity. It will also ensure that we continue to invest and keep our existing stock up to a modern standard. It is anticipated that later this year the list of schools that are going to benefit from that substantial investment in school infrastructure will be published. The Deputy makes a very strong case, as does the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, in relation to the school in question. I will be sure to bring the message back to my colleague the Minister, Deputy Naughton.

I wish to support my colleagues because Cólaiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire is one of the other schools waiting for a long-awaited extension.