The last school year is expected to have represented the peak of student enrolments in recent decades, the Department of Education is set to tell an Oireachtas committee.
In a presentation to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, department secretary general Bernie McNally is expected to say there were more than 977,000 students in schools across the State during the 2024/2025 school year.
She is scheduled to say this represented 38,000 students more than in 2020, and 200,000 more than in 2003.
She will tell the committee this demographic increase, together with the increasing prevalence of special educational needs, has created huge demand for capital development.
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“In July 2025, the review of the National Development Plan confirmed the department’s capital allocations for the period 2026 to 2030. With an average annual allocation of €1.5 billion, €7.55 billion in total, the department’s capital funding is now on a more steady and sustainable footing,” her opening statement says.
She is expected to say the new five-year allocation will allow the Department of Education “to better plan and prioritise project delivery without reliance on supplementary funding”.
“Given the demand for capital funding across the education sector, a key focus of our plan is, and must be, to maximise existing capacity in schools and to prioritise projects that address the most urgent needs, particularly in supporting special education provision.”
McNally is expected to tell the committee that building work is to be carried out this year in about a quarter of the 4,000 schools across the State.
“This includes projects already at construction, large-scale project roll-out, other extension projects, repurposing works for special classes, the climate action summer works scheme and the climate programme.”
