Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for coming in. I expect specific details about the schools present because the cases have been well flagged. Whatever other schools were raised, the schools that are here that have given up their day are entitled to some clear answers. I will start on communication. Do the witnesses accept that the communication for the planning and building unit and in general could be better? Have they plans to address that? As a politician, I spend much of my time on the phone, on my emails and asking parliamentary questions, as I am sure every member of this committee does. I think of the public meetings I have been at in Monasterevin where I, all the Oireachtas Members from Kildare South and seven or eight councillors are hauled in together and asked the same questions. We all go back and try to find the same answers. I imagine if the process was streamlined that it would take the frustration out of it for schools and improve communication and it would save the witnesses time too. Much time must be taken up in the Department answering our queries and questions. We get those queries and questions because the information is not being provided the school. We would all, as politicians, be happier if the schools had adequate information and were clearer and happier about that. It would solve some of those issues.

With regard to the role of principals, it is a simple fact that principals are here today fighting for a new school. Extra-curricular activity is happening in those schools right now. Earlier today, there was a normal timetable of classes in all of those schools. There was a full staff room at lunch time and break time. All of the normal activity is going on and the principal has lost another day fighting for a new school instead of being there to deal with those staff and the care of and ongoing engagement with the pupils. This has been the case for years with these schools for a litany of different reasons. The frustration is palpable and the frustration for us as politicians is equally high because it is so unfair to see what some schools have to go through. Others take it for granted that they get their new school in a really straightforward way, but for those who do not, it is hell on earth for all involved, from the staff, to parents, to pupils, to the principal, to the board of management. Nobody is free of that.

On St. Paul's secondary school in Monasterevin, which is in my constituency, will the witnesses clarify that the St. Paul's project has not in any way been delayed by last week's announcement? That was on social media over the weekend and it caused much concern and distress. I do not believe that is the case but I want clarification from officials that the project and the other school projects are on their own trajectory. I hope the witnesses will give reassurances here that the Department is doing everything to deliver that as soon as is humanly possible.

I understand the different ways that sites are acquired. Is it the case that St. Paul's in Monasterevin was the first time that the Department engaged with Kildare County Council, with the council sourcing the site? If it was not the first, it was one of the first. If so, have lessons been learned from the experience? Something obviously went very wrong here. We are in 2018 and we are still only at stage 2b. What lessons have been learned from that? Can the witnesses give clarity about the status of the site now? Has it been purchased? Is there any concern on the part of the Department that there will be any further delays with the site?

In the most recent correspondence from the Department to the school, the profiling for the start of construction for St. Paul's in Monasterevin is down as quarter three of 2019. Days before the Department issued that, the design team for the school had set a trajectory, with all the ducks lined up, with no reason that the school could not start construction in quarter one of 2019. It might sound like a moot point but it certainly is not to the parents, staff and pupils in Monasterevin. Six months is an eternity. Mr. Loftus outlined in his initial presentation that delays can happen. I accept that delays can happen. They can happen at planning and at acquisition. Unfortunately for St. Paul's, it seems to have happened at every stage. I hope that the Department of Education and Skills is not factoring in extra time to allow for that. I hope that it is full steam ahead to deliver the school as soon as possible. If delays happen, we need clear communication as to why they have happened and what the problem is. Explain why we cannot start construction in quarter one of 2019. I do not want to see any sense that the Department is building in extra time. Will the witnesses explain why they think quarter three of 2019 is the earliest possible and is there any way we can claim back some of that time?