2025-12-10

I wish to raise the long delays in a rebuild project that three schools in my constituency are facing. They are St. John Bosco Junior Boys School, St. John Bosco Senior Boys School and Mary, Help of Christians Girls National School. These schools are just off the Navan Road in Dublin 7. They serve the communities of Ashtown, Navan Road and such new communities as Pelletstown. They are great schools. I have had the opportunity to visit them. I have met the student council of St. John Bosco school and I had the chance to see just how run-down those old buildings were. They are musty, prefabricated buildings with single-glazed windows and cold classrooms. They are three distinct schools, but they have come together with a vision for an education campus on the site. The Minister of State will be aware that bringing three separate schools together under one project is a challenge, but such is the commitment of the school management teams that they have done it. They have a definitive plan for how the students would move out of sections of the old school, how those sections would be demolished and how the new school would be built across the site over a period. However, there has been a real blockage in the schools getting past the notorious stage 2a of the Department's processes. This was an election issue in the general election this time last year and, as soon as I was re-elected, I asked a parliamentary question of the then Minister in February this year. There was due to be a meeting between the schools and the Department back in March. That was cancelled quite abruptly. The situation to date is that the Department requested a stage 2a addendum report from the school's design team, which advised the Department at least four weeks in advance of that report that it would come in on 30 October 2025. Despite having significant notice from the school design team, the Department did not allocate any time or resources to review the documentation when it was received. A meeting had been scheduled by the design team with the Department in anticipation of progressing the review, but again, the Department cancelled the meeting and informed the schools the documentation would now not be examined until after the new year. This is extremely disappointing, particularly given the three schools were explicitly assured that this project would move to the next phase in the first quarter of this year. I acknowledge that the Department sought additional detail and amendments through the addendum, but the lack of preparation on the Department's side to review that documentation when it came in raises serious concerns. I know and the school knows that the Department school building team is under real pressure, but it is now more than a year that these schools have not been able to get past stage 2a. The school and its design team are working quickly and efficiently and are keeping the Department up to date on progress at every stage. However, the Department is not replicating that level of engagement. These three schools, St. John Bosco Junior Boys School, St. John Bosco Senior Boys School and Mary, Help of Christians Girls National School, need a firm date as early as possible from the Department on which to meet the design team, agree the addendum report and let these schools progress to the next stage. Can the Minister of State give me a firm date for when this meeting will take place?

I thank the Deputy. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, to outline to the Dáil the current position of 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 in Dublin 7. The joint school building project the Deputy outlined the background of will deliver two new 16-classroom primary schools, with additional classrooms for children with special educational needs for 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, it was 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 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 of that year, the project was approved to move to the next stage. The design team submitted its stage 2a submission report to the Department in January 2024 for review. Upon review, some key concerns were identified by departmental officials and the school authorities and design team were advised in advance that, in place of the stakeholders meeting, there would be a further interim stage 2a workshop to discuss and assist the design team in progressing its stage 2a submission in a positive manner. The design team was asked to complete a review and audit of the floor area schedules and to refine some design elements in order to meet the approved schedule of accommodation. A further interim workshop was held on 22 March 2024 between the Department and the design team architect, where further refinements and adjustment to floor area were discussed. Upon receipt of the revised stage 2a report, departmental officials carried out an initial review and arranged an architectural workshop with the design team lead in May of this year to discuss it further. In early June 2025, a further meeting was held with the wider design team, school authorities and departmental 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 in the Department on 31 October 2025. Departmental officials will carry out a full review of the addendum report and the stakeholders' meeting will be scheduled once the review is completed. 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, NDP. 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. The approach to project roll-out for large-scale projects and additional school accommodation scheme projects 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 the 2026-30 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.

I thank the Minister of State for the update, but I am disappointed that he, or the Department of Education and Youth, is not in a position to give a clear date for when the schools' design team will meet the Department to, first, discuss the latest addendum report submitted by the schools and, second, give them permission to move past stage 2a. In the speech the Minister of State read, we see that the initial stage 1 report was submitted in April 2023 and it was followed by a stage 2a submission report in January 2024 and a workshop in March 2024, and then we jump to another workshop in May 2025. My concern is that this is not progressing with the degree of haste the situation in these schools requires. Let us remember - the Minister of State read it out just now - that the initial proposal, even before 2023, was for an expansion and refurbishment of prefabricated buildings. The Department itself, however, identified that the condition of all these school buildings was so poor that a complete demolition and rebuild of all three schools was needed. The Department identified that, yet we see this delayed process taking place. There was a commitment for a meeting prior to Christmas. That meeting was cancelled and now there is no firm date for when it is going to take place. I understand this is not the Minister of State’s Department, but I ask that he reflect back to the Department of education the absolute urgency of having a firm date for when this meeting can take place so that these three schools can move past the stage 2a process and the children in them can have a hope of seeing the rebuilding during their time in them.

I certainly will bring that back to the Department and to the Minister and the Deputy’s emphasis on the urgency of moving this project on. I know that whenever three schools are brought together for one project like this, it is a big commitment on behalf of all three schools. It is not easy to keep everybody on the one page and it is important the project keeps moving. I will reflect back to the Department and the Minister the full content of what the Deputy has been saying. As I said in my previous response, the Department asked the design team in early June this year to submit an addendum stage 2a report to the Department. This was received on 31 October 2025, some five or six weeks ago. The departmental officials will be carrying out a full review of that addendum report. They are committing to a stakeholders meeting being scheduled once that review is complete. This is where the process is at now. I take on board the points made by the Deputy in terms of the urgency of completing that review and giving clarity in terms of when the meeting will happen and having it happen so that the process can then move forward. On a wider note, to summarise where we are at generally and where this situation sits within the wider overall investment plans, which are going to be important in terms of moving this and other projects forward, €6 billion has been invested since 2020, as the Deputy knows. This has seen 1,300 school projects completed. In 2025 to 2026, 80% of new special classes are being facilitated in repurposed classroom accommodation, so there is particular pressure in respect of addressing that need. Departments, including the Department of education, are currently in the process of publishing their sectoral NDP implementation plans. The sectoral plan for the Department of Education and Youth will be published next week and the first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published in January 2026. This NDP implementation plan will optimise outputs from the national development plan allocations, with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools and areas is insufficient and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs. I certainly will feed back the full content of the Deputy’s contribution and the need for the prioritisation of this project.