Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in. The fact that we have such a full membership today and that we have other members waiting shows that people are very frustrated with the system. The first thing I want to bring up is the issue of solar panels. It is the Department’s responsibility to roll out solar panels across all schools. As the witnesses know, the climate action fund has allocated €50 million and to date, one year later, not one school has a solar panel on it. As I understand it, the Department has come up with complicated reasons for why it cannot do that. Many of us have solar panels; it is not that complicated. The Department has the people to do the work and it has the money. I fail to see why it cannot just get on with the job. I know I sound frustrated but we are in the middle of a climate emergency. There is money there and people to do the work, but it is not being done and I do not understand why not.

My second point concerns the fact that many of the newer schools are multidenominational schools. I brought up this previously with the Minister as a Commencement matter. I am not saying there is bias and there is clearly not bias.

However, it does mean that many of the children who are going to multidenominational schools are in buildings that are not fit for purpose. They are schools where prefabs are stacked on top of each other. This means that those who choose a particular type of education are in buildings that are not acceptable. One case in point is the Educate Together secondary school in Galway which had those kinds of prefabs. I am looking for an update on the Oranmore site.

I also raise another Educate Together school in Dublin 8. The parents of schoolchildren are campaigning. As I understand it, by 2026, 45% of the students in that area will have to leave it to go to school. I would like to understand what kind of future planning there is, particularly when we know that the census is showing that more and more people in Ireland are not Catholic. We need a future plan so that people do not have to leave areas. There are problems with that, such as transport issues. We need a plan. In that particular area, a large-scale housing development is planned but once it goes forward, there will be no school in the area that is fit for purpose. My colleague, Councillor Michael Pidgeon, has identified a site in the area that would be ideal for a school. Is now not the time to put these things in place and to develop housing around them instead of putting things in place later?