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that the previous Government was all about public transport. That is absolute rubbish. There is investment in MetroLink, which will be a critical project. Deputy McAuliffe mentioned the extension of the Luas to Finglas, which former Fine Gael Deputy Noel Roc, advocated for even as a councillor … almost a year ago, and I am delighted to say that there has been a lot of progress on and support for the project thanks to the work of the Minister for Transport, the two Ministers of State in the Department, the NTA and the TII. When

principle, we will be supporting the Bill because of the importance it holds for the much-needed projects out there. I was in Galway recently and I met a lot of people in relation to Galway University Hospital. Staff are working in shocking conditions, with scaffolding in place … live. Some 4,000 brilliant staff are trying to work under those conditions. Who has the final say as to where all these projects will go? I have been a Member of the Dáil for the past ten years and I have been bringing up passing bays

Gort Community School's foundation. As the Deputy will be aware, the school was approved to enter the Department's pipeline for a project under the additional school accommodation scheme. The project will provide 19 general classrooms, seven SET rooms, two meeting rooms, one deputy principal's office … room, three science laboratories with two prep areas, one construction studies room with a prep area, one engineering room and prep area, three project stores, one staff room, one general purpose or dining area and other ancillary accommodation. The project was devolved to the school authority for delivery

behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the school building project for St. Mary's Oldtown, County Dublin. This project was approved to enter the Department of Education and Youth’s pipeline under the additional school … accommodation scheme and is devolved for delivery to the school authority. The project will provide three mainstream classrooms, one special education tuition room and a two-classroom special educational needs base. The project is currently at stage 2a, detailed design, of the architectural design process. The stage

State for being here. Both the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and the Minister of State will be aware that we have very significant transportation projects in the pipeline for Cork city and county, which are very welcome. Many of these projects are urgently needed in terms of progress. We have … Cork Luas project, which is significant, the BusConnects project, the commuter rail implementation and, of course, ongoing active travel projects. All of these are very important and very welcome. We need to manage these projects under the one roof of a transportation office based in Cork, with

this matter as it gives me, on her behalf, an opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the school building project for Bunclody Community College, Bunclody, County Wexford. The project referred to by the Deputy is devolved for delivery, as he said, to Waterford … Wexford Education and Training Board. The project brief is to provide an extension to the existing school building, as well as the appropriate refurbishment of the existing buildings to be retained for ongoing educational use. This will cater for a long-term projected enrolment of 550 and provide

Ellis for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection. The objective of the school meals programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided. The programme is an important … component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. In the last budget, the hot school meals programme was extended to all remaining primary schools. This means that approximately 3,700 schools and 682,000 children are eligible for school meals. There are 3,200 primary

Government investment in sport is essential to increase participation levels in all sports across all sectors of society. The allocation for the sports programme in budget 2026 is over €290 million, an increase of just under €60 million or 26% compared to the 2025 allocation. When the national … operation of swimming pools is a matter for the respective local authority in the first instance. The Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport, namely the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Over €250 million was allocated

large-scale public infrastructure contracts are completed on time and within budget. The infrastructure guidelines published in 2023 set the key requirements for project governance over a project’s life cycle. The guidelines cover the evaluation of projects and their proper planning and management once approval in principle … guidelines have replaced the public spending code and, significantly, have reduced the number of approval stages and streamlined the requirements for major projects, while retaining the international best practice governance and oversight arrangements already in place. These arrangements sharpen the focus on risk and cost management and reduce

ensure they complete their leaving certificate and can be supported to achieve their full potential. The Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, programme, which aims to address concentrated educational disadvantage, has seen the gap in retention rates between DEIS and non-DEIS schools halved, from … since the programme began. Shortly after becoming Minister, I announced I would develop and publish a new DEIS plan in 2025 to try to close that gap further. A key part of the plan will be to close the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools

secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us meet fully unmet and emerging housing demand; — the measures committed to in the Programme for Government, including a new housing plan building on the successes of Housing for All, will help us meet the enormous challenge of delivering … required standard of treatment, to deal with population and housing growth, and to adapt to the impacts of climate change; — the Programme for Government commits to investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann, and this is being considered in the context of the ongoing review of the National Development

sponsored - to record numbers of children this year, with an allocation of €530 million in 2025; — the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, which enjoys uptake rates in excess of 96 per cent and has removed barriers to accessing pre-school education, with data from a recent … showing that more than 40 per cent of families would not have been able to send their child to pre-school without this programme; — the award-winning Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), that is supporting more than 9,000 children with a disability to access the ECCE programme

House would agree with. I will touch on three matters. The first is youth prevention. I am not talking about the diversion programme, when somebody is entered into that programme and a JLO is appointed. I am talking about avoiding young people engaging in criminality in the first … could be done to update it. The final matter I will touch on is the age of criminal responsibility. There are some superb projects, outside of the diversion programme, that act in this area. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, will be very familiar with the St. Andrew

homelessness. This being said, I would like to assert the Government's commitment to the continuation of the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme and, in particular, more focus in targeting tenant in situ acquisitions. It is important to note that tenant in situ acquisitions are part … wider acquisitions programme for social housing, including acquisitions for older persons and persons with a disability, exits from homelessness services and buying or renewing acquisitions which tackle vacancy. I am acutely aware of the potential situation being faced by households in receipt of social housing supports under

Education has invested more than €5.7 billion in schools throughout the country, involving the completion of more than 1,150 school building projects and with construction under way at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 40 new school buildings. The 300 projects currently at construction involve a total … billion in school infrastructure in County Dublin over the period since 2020. With regard to Fingal West, there are a number of active projects at primary and post-primary levels in progress, which will increase capacity. These projects include a new school building project for St. Molaga

thank the Deputy. My Department is delivering significant projects in Dublin Mid-West and continues to progress further important projects. There are currently eight projects onsite across Dublin Mid-West, including new school buildings for Coláiste Pobail Fola, Gaelscoil na Camóige, Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcáin and Holy Family Community … School. Gaelscoil Lír was substantially completed and handed over to the school at the end of last week. A further four projects are at tender stage, including a new school building for Scoil Chronáin and deep energy retrofit works at Coláiste Bríde, Deansrath Community College and Collinstown Park

Deputy. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am speaking on behalf of the Minister for education. The project referred to by the Deputy is devolved for delivery to the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board, WWETB. The project brief is to provide an extension … building, as well as the appropriate refurbishment of those existing buildings to be retained for ongoing educational use. As the Deputy said, the project is currently at stage 2b - I will remember the term "purgatory" again - of the architectural design process. A stage 2b report has been received

useful to address that specifically. I will not accept these two amendments. There is a clear process for the designation of individual projects and programmes set out in the Bill, as currently drafted. The process already includes a provision that allows Dáil Éireann to reverse any Government decision … designate a specific project or programme. Specifically, an order may be annulled if a resolution annulling the order is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next 21 days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after an order is laid before it. In practical terms, this gives Dáil Éireann

infrastructure. Under this new legislation, every public body will be required to do everything within its power to accelerate approval of any designated project to the maximum extent possible. Public bodies will also be required to co-operate with each other. That is going … sequence their duties with other public bodies and allocate any administrative, technical or decision-making resources necessary for a rapid approval of a project or programme. The Bill specifically identifies critical infrastructure in the energy, transport and water sectors as a priority. This infrastructure is necessary to underpin

with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. This includes activating and funding pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, implementing a planned maintenance programme and carrying out responsive repairs. Local authorities must also ensure their tenanted properties comply with the requirements of the Housing (Standards For Rented Houses … Department also provides annual funding to local authorities, including Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, to complement the local authorities' own management and maintenance programmes. This funding is provided through the recent planned maintenance and voids programme, the energy efficiency retrofit programme and the disabled persons grant programme. These

screening in this country. This Bill is simple. It would stop workers having to take annual leave for hospital appointments for national screening programmes. Better still, it would encourage those workers particularly who are in insecure or low-paid employment, giving them protections to take part … take up national cancer screening programmes. It would be a Bill for people who cannot afford to take a day or some time off, whether that be due to insecure work or fear of missing out on any part of their much-needed pay cheque. Ultimately

thank the Deputy for his comprehensive list of school projects. I know that a significant amount of work is taking place. I compliment the Deputy on the work he does in engaging with schools because I believe public representatives should be constantly engaging with school communities. I thank … engagement with us over the past number of months. Since 2020, the Department has invested over €6 billion in school building projects under the national development plan involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. Over €227 million has been invested in schools across County Galway

Dáil the current position regarding the proposed amalgamation of Ringaskiddy Lower National School and Shanbally National School in County Cork. This project is planned to be delivered as part of phase 2 of the Department’s Adapt 4 programme. That programme uses a professional external programme manager … ordinate and drive the integrated project team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of architectural planning, to tender and construction. This programme is being led by integrated project teams consisting of highly skilled and experienced design professionals, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity

support right across the board. In fairness, the decision was made in October 2025, when the sanction was given for the project. It is a bit early to say that we are delaying anything. I genuinely feel that there is an urgency about delivering this. Improving public transport … infrastructure is central to improving citizens' quality of life and achieving our decarbonisation goals. Achieving these goals has been set out in the programme for Government. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has statutory responsibility for transport planning in the greater Dublin area. The Luas Finglas project

billion in our schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of more than 1,400 school building projects. It has provided almost 100,000 additional and replacement school places, significantly increased provision for special education and has upgraded and modernised our school infrastructure … special education classrooms. The impact of this will be felt in communities right across the country. This includes more than 80 school building projects, approximately 57 completed special schools delivering more than 300 new classrooms, modernised school accommodation, more than 1,000 new classrooms, and modernised accommodation

Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Transport the original approved budget, the current approved budget and the projected final cost of the next generation ticketing programme; the total amount expended on the programme to date; the main factors contributing to any increase in projected costs

Youth if her Department accepts that the Newcastle/Rathcoole/Saggart/Citywest area is experiencing significant pressure on school place capacity; if she will outline how a projected post-primary demand deficit of 691 places by 2028, as identified in records released under FOI Ref. DES-FOI-2026-0107, will be addressed … circumstances where key permanent school building projects are not expected to be completed until 2027 and 2028; the basis on which departmental projections for primary school intake in the area rely on a "no migration" assumption notwithstanding ongoing population growth and permitted residential development; whether these projections

Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health whether the workforce projection model published in December 2025, which projects a shortfall across all modelled professions, including nurses, midwives and medical practitioners by 2040, has been updated to incorporate data from each of the past five years … currently modelled that are expected to be included in the next iteration of the model; when the next published update of the workforce projections will be available; whether a feasibility analysis on the education expansion required to close projected gaps has been completed; and if she will make

Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health whether the workforce projection model published in December 2025, which projects a shortfall across all modelled professions including nurses, midwives, and medical practitioners by 2040, has been updated to incorporate data from each of the past five years … currently modelled that are expected to be included in the next iteration of the model; when the next published update of the workforce projections will be available; whether a feasibility analysis on the education expansion required to close projected gaps has been completed; and if she will make

Minister for Health the total professional fees paid to date to architects and design consultants involved in the National Children’s Hospital project; the basis on which those fees were calculated, including whether they were linked to a percentage of construction cost; the original estimated professional fees when … project was first approved at an estimated cost of approximately €800 million; the current projected total of such fees; and whether she will publish a breakdown of design revisions, plan changes and cost variations that contributed to increases in professional fees over the lifetime of the project. [33893/26

Minister for Education and Youth if her attention has been brought to the long and complex planning history of a new school building project (details supplied); that ten-year planning permission for the new school building project will expire in August 2026; the measures she will take … ensure this project is advanced before planning expires, or the steps that will need to be taken to advance the project as quickly as possible thereafter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29468/26

Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Youth for an update on the building project for a school (details supplied) a post primary project categorised as an extension and refurbishment; the progress made to date; the forthcoming stages in the project lifecycle; the expected timelines … those stages; and the estimated cost range for the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20705/26

Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Youth the position regarding the building project for a primary school project (details supplied) categorised as a new school building; the progress achieved to date; the forthcoming stages of the project lifecycle; the expected timelines for those stages … estimated cost range for the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20706/26

Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Youth for an update on the building project for a school (details supplied) project type categorised as an extension; the progress to date; the next stages of the project lifecycle; the expected timelines for those stages; and the estimated … cost range for the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20707/26

Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Youth the current status of the building project for a school (details supplied), a post primary school project categorised as an extension; the progress made to date; the stages that will follow in the project lifecycle; the expected timelines … those stages; and the estimated cost range for the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20708/26

Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if the next round of Sports Capital Programme, which is due to open in late May, early June 2026, will link areas to the Pobal Deprivation Index; will the new programme continue to allocate funding dependent … link this to the index or will all clubs in County Carlow be granted 95% of the total funding for any future project and clubs contribute 5%; the club in question would previously only have secured 70% funding, due to the area being considered for the overall project

access and inclusion model (AIM) will be extended to include children under three years of age from the commencement of the 2026/2027 programme year, including those who are not participating in the ECCE programme; the plans, funding allocations or timelines in this regard; whether consideration is being given … with the nine-hour maximum available under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS); whether this disparity will be addressed for the 2026/2027 programme year; when the rules and operational guidance for the 2026/2027 programme year will be published, to allow service providers to plan appropriately for September 2026 enrolments

Connolly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the position regarding Údarás na Gaeltachta capital works and business supports programme in Galway West constituency; the progress made under the programme; the forthcoming programme stages and expected timelines for delivery; and the estimated cost range … associated with the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20676/26

Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to her announcement of 105 priority school building projects in the first tranche of the NDP rollout, what this means for other projects; if projects such as the additional accommodation project at a school (details supplied) will

Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to her announcement of 105 priority school building projects in the first tranche of the NDP rollout, what this means for other projects; if projects such as the additional accommodation project at a school (details supplied) will

Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to her announcement of 105 priority school building projects in the first tranche of the NDP rollout, what this means for other projects; if projects such as the additional accommodation project at a school (details supplied) will

Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Defence the projected strength of the Permanent Defence Forces for each of the years 2026, 2027 and 2028, broken down by Army, Naval Service and Air Corps; and the projected inductions and projected discharges underpinning those projections. [15686/26

Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether her Department has approved any workforce planning model or projection which quantifies the projected staffing shortfall to 2030 in social work, social care work, and dietetics; if so, to provide the projected shortfall figures by year … current apprenticeship intake levels align with those projections. [16012/26

Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the current status of all capital projects submitted to her Department from SETU; the status the projects are at including appraisal, design, planning and so on; the projected timeline for delivery for each … project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16113/26

Lawless asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the list of all flood relief and flood risk management projects in County Mayo since 2020, by each project: the name and location of the project; the total approved budget and amount spent to date … including maintenance and ongoing operational costs; whether the project is in planning, under construction, or completed; the number of properties and key infrastructure protected or expected to be protected; whether any nature-based solutions have been included in the design, implementation, or evaluation including but not limited

Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Education and Youth to provide a list of all schools in Limerick with planned capital projects that are at Stage 2B; when each project first engaged with her Department on same capital project, and when the project was listed

Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to her announcement of 105 priority school building projects in the first tranche of the NDP rollout, the position regarding other projects; if projects such as the additional accommodation project at a school (details supplied) will

Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Education and Youth to outline the current status of the permanent building project for a school (details supplied) and the projected timeline for delivery; if she will outline the reasons for progressing the project from Stage 1 to Stage … ADAPT programme since the submission of documentation in June 2025; if there are any contingency arrangements in place as the current temporary accommodation will reach capacity in June 2028; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12615/26

Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Youth to provide a list of all schools with planned capital projects that are at Stage 2B; the list by county, and if possible, constituency; when each project first engaged with her Department on same capital project, and when … project was listed as being at Stage 2B. [8983/26

Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Youth to provide a list of the companies and professional practices appointed under the integrated project teams in each case for ADAPT 4 - Programme Innovate; to provide a separate list of sub consultancies; the proportion of these companies that … Irish; the projected total cost of the ADAPT 4 programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8497/26