Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 24 Jun 2003

Vol. 569 No. 3

Adjournment Debate. - Schools Refurbishment.

Mr. Callanan

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to respond to my request for better facilities for St. Cuan's College, Castleblakeney, County Galway. The complete improvements, which cost £650,000 at the time, were sanctioned in October 2001. The architects divided the project into two phases. One of these, which includes the provision of a new roof, is complete and a fine job was done.

The next phase is to provide six classrooms and relocate the woodwork and science rooms into another part of the school, as these prefabricated classrooms will not be suitable as science and woodwork rooms. The relocated rooms for science and woodwork will have to be fully equipped both electronically and mechanically. An agreement has been entered into to facilitate this. Planning permission was secured over one year ago and, from a safety point of view, these works are necessary. At present, students are crossing a busy road to get into the science and woodwork rooms and these rooms are already in poor shape.

This school has between 210 and 220 students. This year it will enrol two children with disabilities so the facilities being requested will be badly needed. It is an excellent school and produces great results. The tenders for this work are with the Department of Education and Science since January this year. I call on the Minister to give the go-ahead to these tenders in order that work can start straight away.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. T. O'Malley)

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline the position regarding St. Cuan's College, Castleblakeney, County Galway. This school is located three miles from Mountbellew, County Galway, and shares the catchment area with Holy Rosary College and Mountbellew vocational school. It is a relatively small school by today's standards with a current mixed enrolment of 199 pupils, 101 girls and 98 boys. Notwithstanding the enrolment level, St. Cuan's ruled out an amalgamation with other schools in the area in 2001.

The school currently operates on a split campus basis. Its buildings are separated by a road which students cross a number of times each day. The extra classrooms are required to consolidate the school on one campus. Effectively, this will allow the school to vacate a deteriorating 1960s pre-cast concrete building in favour of high quality temporary accommodation on the site of the newer school building. In July 2002, the Department made a significant investment of almost €175,000 to carry out re-roofing works on the newer building at the school to facilitate this development.

The extra classroom accommodation under consideration comprises six prefabricated structures. A tender report in this regard was originally submitted by the school authorities in February 2003. However, the report was incomplete and it was necessary for the school authority to instruct its consultant to prepare an additional submission to the Department to deal with a number of omissions. The outstanding infor mation was subsequently submitted by the school authority and is currently being examined by staff in the Department.

The report comprises details for a single storey, semi-permanent, six classroom building with a total floor area of 459 square metres for which the school authority has planning permission and a fire safety certificate. The examination of the report is nearing completion in the Department and the outcome will be conveyed to the school authority as soon as possible.