I have been asked by members of the management committee and support group of Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg to raise the problems they face in regard to the school's building project. I will quote from a letter they sent to me in May:
The Department has approved AJ Wejcherts Architects to design this scheme. It has taken a whole frustrating year to reach this stage and this week we have heard that the Department has decided to review all projects in progress and will not be ratifying Wejcherts' proposed design team – engineers, quantity surveyors, etc. – until further notice. No time scale has been provided.
This leaves the school in a very difficult situation. Long delays such as these are already putting considerable strain on the school. Growing pupil numbers, a school full to its present capacity and a very healthy waiting list for future years illustrates that the school is a very successful and much needed entity. Its future, however, will depend on our being able to provide accommodation for new classes in the short, medium and long-terms.
This school has grown in a very short period of time to a position where it now has a naíonra, employs five teachers and has an enrolment of 165 students drawn from Ranelagh, Rathmines, Donnybrook, Sandymount, Crumlin and Kilmainham. The Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, played a significant role many years ago in saving Cullenswood House which is now the subject of renewal and renovation. The school is located beside another very famous Gaelscoil in Ranelagh, Scoil Bhríd.
There are a number of problems. In the short-term they need an investigation to see if their case can be made an exception for this review. They estimate that the time scale for the design, planning and appeal would probably stretch to three years, therefore, the cost incurred in the immediate term would be nominal. That would make a case for allowing the process to advance. That is the first point. They want clearance from the Department of Education and Science to put the design team in place.
The medium-term problem is that the increase in the school population will mean that the school will have to move to a temporary site until it can accommodate everybody. The vision is to obtain permission and planning to situate prefabricated buildings on an alternative site. Two alternative sites have been located while the renovation and reconstruction of Cullenswood House are undertaken.
The long-term aim is that once the architects' design team has been approved it will be necessary to have a key figure to act as shepherd during the refurbishment process. Its experience to date has been that the extremely tight cordon around the education planning office is impenetrable. Pursuing regular channels has proven ineffective and a helping hand is required.
I raise this matter on the Adjournment because this is a group of dedicated parents committed to the principles and ethos of a Gaelscoil who have overcome many difficulties over a period. I have been associated with the members of this group, as has my constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Eoin Ryan. They are being frustrated by the failure, for reasons I do not fully understand but suspect, of the Department of Education and Science to engage in enabling them to proceed. They have been told there is no timetable, that they cannot, as such, move to the next stage and they are thoroughly frustrated by the impasse they have encountered.
I presume the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, will respond on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science. I hope he will elaborate on the reason for this impasse and that we will be able to move forward.
