Government plans to invest €800m as part of school building programme

All are currently at tender stage

The Government plans to invest €800m across 90 school projects as part of its school building programme, Education Minister Norma Foley has confirmed. Picture: Tommy Clancy

The Government plans to invest €800m across 90 school projects as part of its school building programme, Education Minister Norma Foley has confirmed.

The 90 projects are all currently at tender stage, and will be authorised to proceed to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025.

The Government say that the projects will provide "new and modernised facilities to help schools cater for growing populations in their areas".

As part of the plans, 138 classrooms for children with special educational needs will be built, with Ms Foley highlighting it as a "key priority" for the Government.

She said: "It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.” 

Since the programme's launch in 2020, around 800 school building projects have been completed, with a further 300 under construction

The projects moving to construction in this next phase will involve 28 new school buildings and 61 extensions at existing buildings.

School building projects under construction involve an overall State investment of over €1.2bn with most of these projects due for completion in 2024 and 2025. 

This, the Department claims,  is a record level of investment.

A spokesperson added: "The Department’s approach is to maximise the usage of existing capacity in the school estate and, in tandem with this, to manage the progression of the existing pipeline of projects within available budgets and in line with the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines. 

"This allows the Department to keep a strong focus on the provision of additional capacity to cater for demographics, new housing developments and the rollout of additional special classes for children with special educational needs.

In total, around €800m will be invested in these projects under the Department’s Large Scale Capital Programme and Additional Accommodation Scheme for "essential classroom accommodation".