Thank you for allowing me to raise this matter yet again on the Adjournment. We must be making history in the House because this is the fourth occasion that the matter of the community school in Cashel has been raised on an Adjournment debate. Nevertheless, in spite of all those efforts, despite numerous parliamentary questions, letters, requests and deputations to the Minister, there has been no sign of the community school materialising in Cashel. At this stage the people are really frustrated by the fact that, over the last number of years, they have been fobbed off with broken promises and commitments which have not been honoured.
I have a file of letters from the Department over the past three years and every single letter contained good news, "that the school was starting soon", "without delay" and "progress is reported". However, to date, little or no progress has been made. The action committee for the school want to know what happened to the £600,000 which they were told had been allocated in this year's budget for the school. They also want to know why the school did not commence in September, as promised. They are not prepared to accept responses that the school will be built without delay. They want to know when the tender will be placed and when they can expect builders on the site in Cashel. Furthermore, they want to know whether the money has been allocated in the Department for this project. If not, where has the £600,000 been spent in the meantime?
The people in Cashel have been very patient. They have been told many times that the building of the school will start in three months but there is always a further delay. Over the last few weeks it has been embarrassing and frustrating to contact the Department of Education because I have been given excuses for the school not being built, ranging from the project being so vast that it has to be thoroughly examined, to having to wait for a fire certificate clearance from the local authority. Why has there not been an application from the Department of Education for a fire clearance certificate? We will not accept that the need for such a certificate can in any way delay commencement of the school in Cashel. We want to hear the truth, we can cope with that, but we cannot cope with broken promises or with commitments which will not be honoured. The anger and frustration of people is so great at this stage that they intend to resort to the national media to try to highlight their case.
The saga of Cashel community school has been going on since 1979 and progress was supposed to have been made. During all those years the people of Cashel cooperated and waited patiently. We want a direct answer to a direct question. When will the school in Cashel start? We do not want to hear "soon", "without delay" or "shortly". When can we expect to see the builders on the site in Cashel? We also want to know whether the money has been allocated for this project.
Every time I left the Dáil Chamber having raised this issue on an Adjournment debate I was happy because I had been given a commitment that the building of the school was about to start. However, I will not be satisfied tonight unless I get a clear and definite commitment from the Minister in relation to the date on which building will start and whether money has been allocated for the project.
