301. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will provide an update in respect of a school (details supplied); and the date on which the addendum report sent to her Department for consideration will clear a review by officials. [52989/26]

The project referred to by the Deputy is part of the Celbridge Campus project encompassing St Patrick's Primary School, St Raphael’s Special School and Celbridge Community School. This project has been devolved for delivery to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) as part of a bundled school building programme (Project Shannon).

The brief for St Patrick's includes the provision of 24 mainstream classrooms and 4 Special Educational Needs classrooms.

The project is currently at Stage 2a of the architectural design process. Stage 2a (the developed design stage) involves the Design Team developing the designs, fully cost planning the campus project and preparing the necessary documentation to facilitate the lodging for statutory approval to Kildare County Council as part of the Stage 2b process.

The Stage 2a meeting recently took place in April 2026 during which the department's professional and technical team provided technical feedback. The project design team was requested to submit an addendum report to the department for consideration addressing these comments. The addendum was received at the end of May and is currently under review from both a technical and cost perspective. Once the department is satisfied that all technical comments have been addressed, the campus project for all three schools will be considered for progression to Stage 2b, which is the detailed design stage that includes statutory approvals.

The NDFA will continue to engage directly with the school authority to keep it fully informed of progress.

My department has a strongtrack recordof delivering the school building programme with over €7 billion invested since 2020.This has delivered approximately 1,400 completed school building projects and over 4,000 smaller-scale improvement projects. Over €414.87 million in capital funding has been invested in County Kildare schools since 2020. Over this period, a total of 55 schools in County Kildare have been upgraded either through provision of a new school building, a large-scale extension or provision of modular accommodation. There are also currently 14 school projects in County Kildare under construction.

A total capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth has been confirmed for the period 2026-2030 under the National Development Plan.   As part of this NDP allocation my 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 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.

As part of the department-led prioritisation process underway for 2026 and 2027, consultation with school patrons began this month. A further tranche of priority projects is targeted for publication in 2027, informed by departmental analysis, engagement with patrons and schools, funding parameters, and—where relevant—the department’s energy and condition inventory of the school estate, due for completion by year-end.

With regards to any issues that have been identified regarding the school’s temporary accommodation, significant remediation works have been undertaken at St Patricks and further works have been planned on a phased basis to minimise disruption, including maximising periods when the school is closed (such as holiday periods).  Two temporary modular units were delivered earlier this year to assist with a phased approach to remediation allowing classrooms to decant at a time while works are ongoing. Now that the school is closed for the summer period, additional planned agreed works can commence, and it is anticipated that all programmed works will be completed for school reopening in September 2026.

I can confirm that there is very good engagement between my Department, the School, and the project managers in relation to the ongoing works.  There has been significant engagement with the school in relation to the sequencing of works to address the outstanding issues and the ongoing presence of the project managers on site ensures that the school are kept up to date on the progression of works.