122. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Education and Youth the date the next tranche of the NDP roll out of new school buildings will be announced; and the amount of funding allocated to her Department in Budget 2027 for this. [74895/26]

It is important to note that this is the first year of the current National Development Plan (NDP) period, which runs from 2026 through to 2030.  The Department of Education and Youth has an approved capital allocation of €7.55 billion over that five-year period. The department’s NDP allocation in 2026 is €1.6 billion and in 2027 is €1.6 billion.

As part of our sectoral NDP implementation plan, published in January 2026, 105 projects were identified to progress to tender or construction during 2026 and 2027. 56 of these projects have now been completed, commenced construction or received approval to commence construction.

Further modular and smaller scale additional accommodation projects also continued to be progressed to meet annual September needs.

It is expected that the next tranche of projects to proceed to tender will be published in 2027.

Prioritisation will continue over the coming months to identify this next tranche of projects. This will be informed by latest available demographic and capacity data, the department’s energy and condition inventory (the validation of which is due to be completed by early 2027), opportunities for phased development to prioritise the most urgent accommodation needs and consultation with patrons and management bodies.