I am.

Sentiment score: 0.00

I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for raising this matter. It gives me an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the school project for St. Eunan’s College in Letterkenny. This 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 2040 framework. St. Eunan’s College is a single-sex, Catholic secondary school for boys under the patronage of the Bishop of Raphoe. This school building project will deliver a new extension and refurbishment of some existing accommodation to provide accommodation for 1,000 pupils and additional classrooms for children with special educational needs. The stage 1 submission of this major project was initially received in May 2020 and, following the submission of an addendum report, it was approved to the next stage in September 2020. Following this, stage 2A of the project was approved in April 2021. An emergency works application for the installation of fire alarms and related works was completed in April 2022. Following a review of the schedule of accommodation, the design team was requested to submit design options to include an increase of two classrooms for children with special educational needs. The design team submitted its amended design options to include the increased accommodation to the Department for review, which was approved in July 2024. Planning permission was secured in March 2022. Thereafter, a complete stage 2 report was received by the Department in October 2024 for review. Stage 2B involves detailed design, securing all statutory approvals and the preparation of tender documentation. In February 2024, the Department secured decant accommodation in the vacant boys’ national school, which is adjacent to the school site. This will facilitate the decant of the school to allow completion of the major project. However, these premises will be subject to enabling works in anticipation of the major project progressing to construction. The next stage in the process will be stage 3, tender action and award. The Department is in continuous contact with the design team and the school regarding further progression of the project. In July, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the 2026-2030 period under the national development plan. As part of this 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. With regard 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 provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the course of the 2026-2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.

Sentiment score: 0.26

I will bring the Deputy's concerns back to the Minister and ask her, if she is in Donegal, to put in a tour of St. Eunan's College. Since 2020, the Department has invested over €6 billion in schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of 1,300 school building projects. In addition, repurposing and optimising existing accommodation capacity across the school estate has been a key enabler of timely local provision of special class capacity in a way that supports best practice in inclusion and integration. Some 80% of new special classes in 2025 and 2026 are being facilitated by repurposed classroom accommodation. The Government's support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million, approved by the Government, helped to bring the total capital allocation of the Department in 2025 to €1.6 billion. Government Departments are currently in the process of publishing their sectoral national development implementation plans. The sectoral plan 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 plan will optimise input from the NDP allocations with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is sufficient and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs. I thank the Deputy again for raising this important issue.

Sentiment score: 0.42

I thank Deputy Moynihan. The Government has committed to deliver up to 5.7 TWh of indigenously produced biomethane per annum by 2030. Delivery of this target and the use of biomethane within our energy system will have multiple cross-sectoral benefits for Ireland’s economy, energy security and emissions profile. In response to this ambitious target, the Department, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, published the national biomethane strategy in May 2024. Implementation of the national biomethane strategy is an ongoing process of collaboration across key Departments and agencies. The biomethane implementation group has been established to oversee implementation of the strategy and delivery of the 25 key strategic actions to ensure the necessary infrastructure and supports are in place to support development of an indigenous biomethane industry of scale. While anaerobic digesters, ADs, used to produce biogas and biomethane can bring significant benefits to the communities and local environment in which they are located, they are also significant infrastructure, with impacts on the environment, biospheres, and local communities. Although a very well-established technology in Europe with over 20,000 plants in operation, the AD sector in Ireland has been relatively small to date. However, there is a robust existing regulatory framework in place to underpin the further development of the AD industry in Ireland and harness the benefits of biomethane. For example, plants involved in anaerobic digestion of animal by-products or derived products must be approved by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Depending on the plant's activity, various licences are required from the Environmental Protection Agency. On-site health and safety is regulated by the Health and Safety Authority and the plant's connection to the gas network is regulated through the Commission for Regulation of Utilities and Gas Networks Ireland's procedures and standards. The Department is currently developing a licence, permit and regulation requirement document for biomethane plant development. It is expected that this document will be published shortly on the biomethane policy information page on gov.ie. We need to ensure a clearer understanding of AD technology and consistency of approach by our planning authorities when they are assessing AD projects to improve our planning and permitting processes. AD and other integrated assets are required to undergo a full planning process to ensure proper consideration of a range of factors, including location, visual impact, land zoning plans and ecology. Guidelines and requirements for these are currently set out through several Acts, policy documents, spatial strategies, and development plans. Projects above a certain threshold are also required to complete an environmental impact assessment. Priority deliverables under the strategy include action 5g on guidance. A biomethane implementation subgroup has recently been established to oversee the preparation of a support document to assist local representatives and planning authorities when assessing planning applications for biomethane plants. It is expected the support document will be finalised early in 2026. This document will be developed by the biomethane implementation group, chaired by the Department and in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Teagasc, and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Sentiment score: 0.35

I thank the Deputy for raising very valid and informed concerns. The Deputy talks about the absence of guidelines. The Government remains committed to the production of up to 5.7 TWh of biomethane, which is a little over 10% of our current natural gas, and the development of Ireland's anaerobic digestion of biomethane on an industrial scale. This will serve to diversify our sources of gas, improve our energy security and deliver the carbonisation options for Ireland to meet its 2030 climate and energy targets. Biomethane production can bring significant benefits to the communities and local environment in which the plants are located, including creating jobs and new revenue streams for farmers and other rural businesses. As was said, these are significant infrastructure and therefore are, correctly, required to undergo full planning and permitting processes to ensure consideration of a range of factors including location, the visual impact, land zoning plans, and ecology. A key priority is the development of guidelines to support our local authorities. When finalised, these will be made available on the biomethane information hub on gov.ie. Finally, it is my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage who has responsibility for the overall development of national planning policy and legislation. AD and other integrated assets are required to undergo a full planning process to ensure proper consideration of a range of factors including location, visual impact, land zoning plans and ecology. Guidelines and requirements for these are currently set out through several Acts, policy documents, spatial strategies, and development plans. As the Deputy will be aware, projects above a certain threshold are also required to complete an environmental impact assessment. Again, I thank the Deputy for raising his concerns. I will bring them to the Minister as soon as possible.

Sentiment score: 0.32