Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I would like to pick up on Deputy Catherine Connolly's important point about the deterioration of buildings that are lying idle. A former primary school in Trim, County Meath has been transferred to the Department of Education and Skills, but nothing is happening. The property is to be used by the education and training board for the Educate Together school in Trim which is operating from a golf club four miles outside the town. I have raised the issue in the Dáil with the Minister for Education and Skills. It has now been discovered that the cost of fitting out the school exceeds what it was thought it would be. The children are staying in the golf club on the Kildalkey Road. Deputy Catherine Connolly's point is extremely well made. There is no point in having a scenario in which property deteriorates before it is transferred to the extent that it is worth absolutely nothing to anybody. The building control unit in the Department that analyses these properties does not provide a proper costing of what is required to make schools habitable for children when they are transferred. One part of the Department is not speaking to another.