2026-01-13

I have raised many Topical Issue matters and very rarely is the line Minister here for them so I thank her for that. St. Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous is the only post-primary school in that community. The work undertaken at this school under the stewardship of Mr. Andrew Purcell is nothing short of exemplary but the conditions in which people have to work, learn and develop are simply substandard. The people of Prosperous and north-west Kildare have been led down the garden path about a proposed new school for over ten years. In 2025, news was released that the school had gone to tender stage. In 2023, the Department had officially approved the plans and designs for stage 2A of a 1,000-pupil school but it was as far back as 2015 when the then Minister Jan O’Sullivan made an announcement that St. Farnan’s was on a list for extensions. This school and this community have been promised this for an awfully long time. Nearly two generations of students have been told that by the time they finish, the new school will be here. Now the population in Prosperous and the communities this school serves, which goes far beyond into Allenwood, Coill Dubh and other places, have nearly given up hope on this. They hope that one day they will see this new school, but we are talking about the really young siblings. It is coming to the point where it will be the next generation before we will see the turning of the sod on this. I am reluctant to get too much into the details of the temporary piece. There has been significant investment by the Department in temporary accommodation at this site and that is to be welcomed, but back in August, four classrooms were allocated and none of those have yet been handed over to the school. That is the kind of delay this school has experienced, yet it took in all the students who were enrolled on the basis it would have those four classrooms. Issues like that show the problems with the short-term fix to what is a much more long-term need for a sustainable capital project. This is, as the Minister knows, one of 290 projects on the list. Of those, 20 are in Kildare. We are having this conversation in a context where County Kildare’s population has doubled since the early 1990s to nearly 250,000 people. When we see housing coming without the development of services and infrastructure, issues like this will arise. I could be talking about school issues in Clane, Brannockstown, Naas, Maynooth or Celbridge. I am not just listing off towns as these are legitimate concerns schools such as Scoil Mochua and Gaelcholáiste Mhaigh Nuad have. Capital is what we need. Investment is what we need. There have been six Ministers since Jan O’Sullivan made that announcement about St. Farnan’s back in 2015. We are really hoping the Minister, Deputy Naughton, can be the one who makes the project happen. What we need are the services and the investment. I am putting it to the Minister that we are just about there now and that the last push is needed for St. Farnan’s and Prosperous. I hope this Government will be the one that gets it over the line.

I thank Deputy Farrelly for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the school building project at St. Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous, County Kildare. The project brief is to provide a new-build replacement school for a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils, including a four-classroom special educational needs base. The delivery of this project has been devolved to Kildare Wicklow Education and Training Board, KWETB. The project is in the final stages of stage 2B, which is the post-planning process, of the architectural design. This stage allows for detailed design and planning, obtaining necessary statutory permissions and preparation of tender documents. Planning has been granted and KWETB has been advised the stage 2B report is expected to be submitted in 2026. Once received it will undergo a detailed technical and cost review in line with the public spending code. All projects are subject to the due diligence requirements of the public infrastructure guidelines. Managing the time, scope and cost is crucial to staying within budgetary limits for the overall programme. Regarding additional accommodation requirements, the Department has provided temporary accommodation that includes four general classrooms, an office, a construction studies room and a multimedia room, which the Deputy referred to. KWETB and the design team have worked with the modular supplier to expedite delivery and reconfiguration of this accommodation to meet the school’s needs. At this early stage it is not possible to provide a timeline for completion of the project. KWETB will continue to engage directly with the school authorities to keep them fully informed of progress. In July 2025, 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 part of this NDP allocation, the Department will place a strong emphasis on children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. In relation to 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 provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the course of 2026 to 2030 to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs. Government Departments are in the process of publishing their sectoral NDP implementation plans and the sectoral plan for my Department will be published shortly. The first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published this month. This NDP implementation 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 the area is insufficient and ensuring the delivery is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs.

I thank the Minister for that comprehensive reply. I am trying to read between the lines as to what that will mean for St. Farnan's specifically where the implementation plan is concerned. We need this. The community needs this. I accept Deputies throughout the House will be saying the exact same thing to her about various projects in their community but we are ten years on with St. Farnan's and this project will have a monumental impact on the communities this school serves in areas of deprivation and poverty. The Minister mentioned the special education services provided but she would have to see it to believe what this school is doing with such limited resources. I appeal to her that if and when this comes to her for decision, she will ensure St. Farnan's is on the list. She will be in Kildare tomorrow visiting schools. She could extend that visit by 20 minutes. She will be very close to St. Farnan's. If she could come by tomorrow and take a look around, she would very quickly believe this school deserves the investment we are talking about.

I thank the Deputy. I can certainly hear his passion for this project. As I have said, the Department is committed to ensuring appropriate accommodation is available to all school pupils and will in the wider context outlined ensure each school project on the school building programme is subject to the due diligence required under the public infrastructure guidelines. It is a challenging construction environment, as I said, and we are also required to ensure we are managing the timing, scope and cost of all these projects within the budgetary parameters that are set. The length of time projects take depends on a number of factors, including scale and complexity. It is also subject to the time it takes to progress to the various project stages and the statutory approval processes. However, my Department remains committed to providing ongoing guidance and practical support in the delivery of this project. As I outlined previously, Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board is the delivery body for this large-scale, major project and will continue to engage with the school authorities on this matter. I thank the Deputy for raising it this evening.