Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 May 2023
56. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Education if she will address the issue regarding almost 60 school projects being on hold due to funding issues including a school (details supplied) in Bantry, County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23209/23]
View answerAlmost 60 school building projects are on hold due to funding issues. One of the schools affected is Coomhola national school, Bantry, west Cork. The Minister might be able to outline when work will commence on the school's new classrooms.
The Department has a considerable record in the delivery of schools buildings. More than 180 projects were completed last year to the highest standards. This year alone 300 school building projects are on hand, including 40 new school buildings and 260 projects of additional accommodation of various types. Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing €4.4 billion between now and 2025 to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities throughout the country for the almost 1 million students and 100,000 staff who attend our schools. Key priorities for the Department are supporting the operation of the school system and adding necessary capacity to cater for special education needs provision, mainstream demographics and catering for students from Ukraine and other countries under the international protection system.
As the Deputy will be aware, an agreement was secured with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in recent weeks to guarantee and support the roll-out and continuation of the Department’s ambitious school building programme. The agreement reached on 5 April is facilitating the continued roll-out of urgently required school building projects in mainstream and special education settings, including projects that were temporarily paused. Officials from the Department have updated each of these schools on the formal arrangements and the next steps in respect of the delivery of their individual projects. The current status of all projects is listed on a county-by-county basis on gov.ie and is updated on a regular basis.
I wish to clarify that the school project to which the Deputy refers was not one of the projects temporarily paused due to capital funding pressures. The Department approved funding for the school under the additional school accommodation scheme. The project will provide two en suite mainstream classrooms and the responsibility for delivery of the project is devolved to the school itself. The project is at the design stage of the architectural planning process. The professional and technical officials in the Department have reviewed the school's design team submission and their recommendations have been shared with the school authority. Officials are engaging directly with the school to assist it in this regard to ensure this important project is progressed to the next stage of architectural planning and delivered as quickly as possible.
I thank the Minister for her reply. In 2020, the school in Coomhola, which is north of Bantry in west Cork, was approved for the building of a new classroom to replace two Portakabins, which are very unsuitable for long-term use as classrooms. As we know, Portakabins are cold and very damp in winter and too hot during warm weather. In August 2022, I wrote the Department on behalf of the school. The representation was acknowledged on 10 August by the Minister's private secretary but no work has commenced since then. The new classroom is urgently needed by this very progressive school. I thank all the staff and the board of management. They are very anxious that the building should be ready for the next school year beginning in September. Will the Minister give the people of Coomhola and the surrounding area a promise that the new classroom will be in place by 1 September 2023?
As I have outlined, the school accommodation project was approved in 2020 and it has devolved to the school authority. The project is at stage 1. I understand there site-specific challenges for the delivery of the school building project. However, following a review of the project's design team submission by the Department's professional and technical officials the project proposal was deemed viable subject to two technical recommendations on site services and other engineering-related issues. The school authority was advised of these comments and the Department is awaiting the design team's response. To expedite this response officials from the Department have engaged directly with the school authority to clarify the issues, following which the project is expected to progress to the next stage of design. Ultimately, as the Deputy will appreciate, it will progress to tender and construction thereafter as quickly as possible.
I thank the Minister for her reply. The extension for these two rooms was approved in 2020; it is now 2023. We are three years on and the Minister cannot tell me today when a sod will be turned on the project. She cannot tell me today that in the first week of September or late August when the children go back to the school it will have these two new classrooms in place. We will probably be looking at a four-year wait. I would like a date for this. The children and parents of Coomhola, the school and the board of management deserve to be treated better than having two cold and damp classrooms in Portakabins. I accept there is movement but it has been three years and now it looks like it could be four years. This is not acceptable to the people of west Cork. They should not be treated like second-class citizens. I appeal to the Minister to give me a date for when the works will start and end.
I accept and the Department accepts the need for the building to progress. I want to be clear that it has devolved to the school authority. It appears there are site-specific challenges. It appears there were two outstanding technical recommendations for the site. They have been communicated to the school authority. We await what further progress the school authority can make. It has been advised of the two challenges that have been raised. The Department is awaiting the design team's response. The Deputy will appreciate there are a number of stages that must be gone through to ensure that everything is as it should be and all of the demands and whatever the challenges might be can be overcome. Two specific challenges have been identified and the Department is awaiting the response of the design team on these. In the interim, to facilitate the school the Department has engaged directly with it to facilitating a positive outcome on the two specific challenges.
