asked the Minister for Education whether his Department envisages a new secondary school or a permanent extension to the existing school at Dunlavin, County Wicklow.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Wicklow School.
75.
My Department have agreed to the provision of a permanent building to provide 400 places at this school and discussions are taking place with the VEC to establish in what form the required accommodation may most satisfactorily be made available.
When was the decision made on a permanent building and when was this decision conveyed to the Wicklow VEC?
My information is that the Department recently agreed to the provision of a permanent building to give 400 pupil places at this school. I regret that I do not appear to have the date of the conveyance of the information which the Deputy is referring to. I understand that the officers of the building unit of the Department met the CEO in relation to this matter as recently as 28th January last to discuss the outstanding matters in relation to the most suitable form of the accommodation.
As a member of the VEC I am aware that at our last meeting a decision was not taken whether it would be a permanent extension or a complete new building. The Parliamentary Secretary must have that in his brief because it must have occurred in the last three weeks.
The position is that some additional permanent accommodation will be provided, but the question to be decided is the form of that permanent accommodation. That is still outstanding although it is still quite possible that the decision in principle to provide additional permanent accommodation was available to the VEC at their last meeting. No information I have would contradict that.
I should like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether his Department envisage a new secondary school or a permanent extension to the existing school at Dunlavin?
Discussions are still taking place as to the form the permanent accommodation may take. The permanent accommodation may encompass a completely new permanent building or a combination of the usage of existing permanent accommodation already available plus some additional permanent accommodation.
The question is specific and the Parliamentary Secretary's answer should be that he does not know because a decision has not been taken. The Parliamentary Secretary should stop all this dilly-dallying around and look at the question. Are we getting a new building or are we having a permanent extension?
That matter is under discussion.
A lot of nonsense.