Wicklow schools stuck in limbo as government pours €1.3bn into temporary accommodation
The Wicklow PeopleSchool communities across Wicklow are being left waiting years for long-promised permanent buildings, despite millions being spent nationally on temporary classrooms and modular accommodation, according to Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair and Wicklow TD John Brady.
Several major Wicklow projects, including Newtownmountkennedy Primary School, St Kevin’s National School in Dunlavin and Loreto Secondary School in Bray, remain stalled despite securing planning permission or receiving repeated commitments from government ministers.
The delays have prompted renewed criticism from Deputy Brady, who says local students, parents and teachers are being forced to rely on temporary accommodation while permanent solutions fail to progress.
His comments come after figures presented to the PAC revealed that approximately €1.3 billion was spent on temporary school accommodation between 2021 and 2025, raising fresh questions about the Department of Education’s approach to school infrastructure planning.
According to correspondence supplied by the Department of Education, €222 million was spent on rented land and temporary accommodation over the past five years, with a further €1.14 billion allocated to the Department’s modular accommodation programme.
The figures have prompted sharp criticism from Sinn Féin's Deputy Brady, who described the spending pattern as “astonishing” and evidence of a “flawed approach” to the issue of school planning.
Deputy John Brady, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee.
Deputy Brady said the reliance on prefabs and modular units amounted to “sticking plaster solutions” that fail to address long term capacity pressures in rapidly growing communities.
He argued that while temporary structures are absorbing vast sums of public money, permanent school projects that have already secured planning permission are being left to drift for years without progress.
Among the schools highlighted were Newtownmountkennedy Primary School, which first received planning permission in 2018 before a revised application was approved in 2023.
Despite this, the project remains stuck at Stage 2b of the Department’s building process, a stage involving a detailed design and costings, and has not been included on the current list of priority projects.
Similarly, St. Kevin’s National School in Dunlavin, a long discussed development considered essential for the west Wicklow area, has also failed to advance beyond Stage 2b. Deputy Brady noted that despite many public assurances about rapid progress, the project remains mired in departmental procedures.
Perhaps the most striking example is Loreto Secondary School in Bray, which has relied on prefabs for more than two decades.
The school’s redevelopment, intended to expand capacity to around 1,000 pupils, has been repeatedly promised by government figures.
The Tánaiste, and Deputy Brady’s constituency colleague, Simon Harris, stated in 2021 that the design and planning phase would be completed, and indicated in 2024 that the project would move to the tender stage. Despite these commitments, Loreto also remains at Stage 2b and off the priority list.
Deputy Brady warned that some projects now face completion dates “stretching towards the end of the decade,” leaving communities with no choice but to continue relying on temporary structures.
The controversy comes amid wider concerns about the impact of the revised National Development Plan, which has seen several education projects deprioritised or delayed due to budgetary pressures and construction inflation.
Deputy Brady said school communities “deserve far better,” calling for immediate action to progress long delayed projects.