Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I also want to ask about modular building at Kolbe Special School. I have raised this matter over and over again. Ministers have come down and films and videos have been made about it. At the moment, the accommodation works have been held up and there have been different delays over the years. The staff and parents are challenged. I visited that school when the pupils were there. The staff have a very difficult job as they are dealing with people with high needs. The prefabs that have gone in are of a good quality. I am not going to knock the fact that those prefabs have gone in but we must think about what has happened. Temporary classrooms have been put in because the building dragged on for so long. If the builders were able to get onto the HSE site around the corner more quickly, we would not have to spend on temporary accommodation. We seem to be spending a lot of money before the job starts around the corner on the HSE land in the next field. I accept that temporary accommodation is sometimes required and the Secretary General made that point. I accept that it is better to have temporary accommodation than no accommodation but it makes even medium-term planning difficult. The former Minister for Education, Deputy McHugh, was down there in 2018. At that stage, it looked as if the project was going to advance but it did not. I make that point.