Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2017
10. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a building project at a school (details supplied) will proceed to construction stage without further delay in view of the urgent need to provide additional and upgraded permanent school accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31731/17]
View answerAs the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is well aware, this project, the Holy Family School at Cootehill, is of utmost importance. This school was established in 1966 and one of its founders was our former colleague in this House, Dr. Rory O'Hanlon. It serves the catchment area of Cavan and Monaghan and it is the only special needs school we have in either county. Since 2002, the school population has doubled. The enrolment in September is 168. The main buildings were constructed in 1973 and the school is now on two sites. As I discussed with the Minister - I appreciate our recent meeting - there is an urgent need to progress to construction stage the proposed permanent accommodation.
I thank Deputy Brendan Smith for raising this again. I acknowledged earlier the Deputy's interest and question. I fully understand the concerns. As I stated earlier, the right decision was made not to have a two-phase development, and the board took that decision on the development.
There were a couple of delays, which were unfortunate. They were not caused by the Department, but delays are a feature of any project. I understand the Deputy's concern. He has spoken to me about it at private meetings as well as publicly here in the Dáil. I assure him that we will do our utmost to ensure that unnecessary obstacles are not put in the way of this project. There were some shortcomings in the original stage 2b report, which had to be corrected. They were sent back to be corrected. Those have been overcome. While I cannot say how long the process of approval will take, I assure the Deputy that we are determined to push this ahead. We hope to get to a point where we can release this for tender at the earliest possible date.
I thank the Minister. I raised a Topical Issue on 6 April. At that time, the concern of the board of management and the parents association was the detailed stage 2b submission and the Department had not given permission for the pre-tender qualification process to commence in tandem with the examination of the submission. That evening, I requested the Minister to ask the Department to issue the approval in respect of commencing the pre-qualification process. I want to record that the next day, the Department contacted me to say that approval had issued to the school to allow both processes proceed in tandem. I appreciate that.
The Department sought clarification from the school's consultants on a number of points about the stage 2b detailed submission. Those questions have been answered. All the data has been returned to the Department. If I was to paraphrase the representations I have received from members of the board of management, the parents association, the principal and staff it would be that they want this particular stage finalised as quickly as possible. They want the project to proceed to the next stage. None of us are talking about taking shortcuts. We fully appreciate that where major projects are about to proceed to construction, processes have to be completed in a proper manner. However, I cannot emphasise enough the need to ensure that the examination of this stage 2b process is concluded as rapidly as possible so that the Minister will be able to issue approval to the school for the project to proceed to construction stage.
I absolutely understand the position. The Deputy raised this issue previously and I was pleased to be able to release that pre-qualification tender. This is slightly complex because the full decant is part of the overall tender. I understand why people would like to see that move forward, but that is conditional on the tender completion. That means it is urgent that we move it forward. My Department is very much aware of the anxiety locally and we will do everything we can to keep it moving. I will keep in touch with the Deputy.
I thank the Minister. Those of us who have the privilege of representing the constituency of Cavan-Monaghan and having had interaction with the school on many occasions over the years know that it is a school of which we are all proud. Successive principals, the current principal, Rachel Moynagh, all her staff, the board of management and successive parents associations have worked to develop a great school community and they are anxious that they would have modern accommodation. The school is currently on two sites, which creates additional pressure both on the teachers and their support staff, but also on the pupils and the families concerned. We need to get to a point where we have modern, permanent accommodation on one site to ensure that those children are taught and that services are provided in modern, proper accommodation and that the staff can deliver those services in that environment.
