I welcome the Minister of State to the House.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I ask him to picture, if he can, rats and mice in classrooms, water dripping down the windows, and young children sitting in their coats trying to stay warm in a 60-year-old building. This is not a scene from centuries ago. It is happening today in Marymount National School in Ballsgrove in Drogheda, a busy, thriving school doing its very best to serve a growing community, including more than its fair share of students with special educational needs.

The building dates back to 1969, and after more than half a century it is simply no longer fit for purpose. Staff and students contend daily with leaking roofs, persistent damp, poor insulation and even rodent infestations. Classrooms are cramped and overcrowded, with spaces constantly repurposed to cope with demand. Teachers are doing extraordinary work in conditions that no child or educator should have to endure.

Most distressing of all is the impact on children with special educational needs. The school has just one small SEN room accommodating six pupils, meaning many others are taught in mainstream classes without proper facilities or spaces. Earlier this year, I helped the school to fight for a single SNA to add to its group. It is unfair to these children and to the teachers who are doing their utmost with so few resources. That is why this planned 20-classroom school is not just welcome; it is essential. It will provide four purpose-built special education classrooms, fully integrated into the main building with wheelchair access, sensory rooms, shower facilities and breakout spaces. It will finally give those children the environment they need to learn, develop and flourish with dignity.

I spoke yesterday to the principal, Jane Kirwan, who told me that the school is happy to have a 20-mainstream-class school instead of a 24-mainstream-class school, and can only presume that this number has the evidence to back up what is coming down the tracks over the next ten years. There are a huge number of estates currently being built in the town and in and around the school’s parish, not to mention the influx of those coming from abroad. The school turns families away on a weekly basis.

This project has faced decades of delay and disappointment. It was originally approved as a 24-classroom build. It was paused around the time of the general election last year and later reduced to a 20-classroom build. Planning permission was first submitted in June 2021. After a lengthy appeal, An Bord Pleanála granted approval in April 2022. Since then, the progress has been painfully slow. The Department's own records show that the project is now at tender stage, but the school community really needs certainty. It needs a clear timeline for when the tender will be completed, when construction will begin, and when the pupils and staff of Marymount National School will finally step into the modern school they deserve.

Let us remember that this is not just bricks and mortar. For Drogheda, which is Ireland's largest town and is soon to be a city, this school represents a commitment to the future. Marymount National School has been the heart of that community since the 1960s. It has provided care, compassion and education under ever-increasing pressure. The staff, parents and children have waited long enough. They have done their part by making huge concessions to their original plans. Now it is time for the Department to do its part.

I ask the Minister of State to make a clear commitment that this project will move further without further delay and that these children, including those with the greatest needs, will not have to spend another winter learning in damp, cold classrooms. For the town and the community, this is much more than a school building; it is a promise that every child in this rapidly growing area deserves to learn in safety, comfort and dignity.

I thank Senator Comyn for raising this matter as it provides me with an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, to outline to the Seanad the current position in relation to the major building project for Marymount National School in Drogheda, County Louth. The project is included in the Department of Education and Youth’s construction programme, which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of the Project Ireland 2024 framework. The brief for this project is the development of a new 24-mainstream-class primary school, plus four classrooms for pupils with special educational needs, along with one home school liaison room on the existing site.

Stage 1 for Marymount National School was approved in February 2013, as the Senator said. Stage 2A was approved in September 2015 following the submission of an addendum report. Due to an unresolvable dispute with regard to design team fees, the regional design team was replaced in November 2016 and works began on stage 2B of the building project. As the Senator said, there are decades of issues here. In mid-2017, the board of management advised the Department that it could acquire additional land from Louth County Council for the school building project. The original site was extremely restrictive, and the acquisition of this land eliminated the need for a phased delivery of the project. The sale closed in July 2018. The planning application was submitted in June 2021, and was initially granted after a request for further information.

However, an appeal was lodged to An Coimisiún Pleanála in January 2022 which delayed the granting of planning permission until April 2022. Following this, the stage 2 report was approved in September 2024 and the project moved to the current stage. This major building project is currently at stage 3, tender action evaluation and award, and the Department is currently reviewing tender report number 2, which is subject to due diligence by the Department. This is a critical part of the overall completion of the stage 3 process and vital for ensuring quality and value for money.

In July the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.5 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026 to 2030 under the national development plan. As part of the 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. In relation to the 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 to provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs

I thank the Minister of State for outlining what, I am afraid, we already knew, which is the very long and varied history of this particular school dating back to 2013, which I did not even mention. This has been 12 years in the pipeline. I note the Minister of State's response and the commitment from the Department on providing schools but there is no mention of this particular school. What they want to know is the timeline for this school. Diggers were supposed to have been on-site last summer but that did not happen. They went back and made compromises to try to provide a school and they need to know. They are no further down the line. The Minister of State has not mentioned when it is going to go ahead, when a builder is going to be chosen and when they will have diggers on the site. That is exactly what the parents, the staff and, most importantly, the pupils want to know. They are in dire need of new classrooms but I am still no clearer as to when that is going to happen.

I thank the Senator. She has made it quite clear that she needs a timeline. She expected that the diggers would be on-site last summer. Unfortunately, I do not have any timelines for her but I will bring her concerns back to the Minister. The sectoral plans for the education and youth sector will be published next week and the first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published in January. The NDP implementation guide will optimise outputs from the NDP allocations with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects for local capacity across schools in areas deemed insufficient, ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs. Effectively, the sectoral plan will be published next week and hopefully the school will be in that sectoral plan. I will bring the Senator's concerns back to the Minister.