Shane McEntee (Meath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to speak on this issue and thank the Minister for Education and Science for her attendance. No doubt, like myself she is puzzled by what is involved. That said, nobody is more puzzled than the people of Laytown and Bettystown by what has taken place over the past two years with regard to this issue. I am only two years in politics and one of the first issues that came to my attention was the announcement of a new school for Laytown during the by-election.

Last summer, all the politicians of the area were called together in the first week of August to discuss what would be done in September for the 75 or 80 children with no school to go to. Deputies put their party allegiances to the side and mounted a campaign together to remove objections. The teachers of both existing schools were put under pressure and children were finally allowed admission to school, although their classroom was in a gymnasium to which toilets were added at the side, but without lighting. All those involved, particularly parents, then set out to find a solution to the problem.

On 6 October 2006, the Minister announced that a site for a new school had been secured. It was confirmed that officials from the Department had concluded a deal to purchase a school campus site for Laytown. Everybody hoped everything would go well, but last week it transpired the Department had applied for planning permission for a site it did not own. It had never even asked the owner of the land in question whether it could apply for planning permission for that site.

The Minister has stated that despite the announcement in 2006 that lands had been purchased, the purchase did not happen. Six months after the Department's announcement, it emerged the sale of the four-acre site for the school had not been completed. In a statement, the Minister for Education and Science admitted to difficulties with regard to the land for the temporary school.

I am not raising this matter for my benefit but on behalf of parents. I want to know what is going on. Who got us into this mess? How could the Department apply for planning permission for lands it did not own without the permission of the landowner? How could the Department say it had concluded a deal, but six months later say no deal was completed? The authority has been given the go-ahead to apply for planning permission on another site. Have those lands been bought? Is there a deal on the Minister's table that has not been signed since last October? A total of 107 children in Laytown and Bettystown will have nowhere to go next September. What has gone wrong? What are the plans for the future? Can we be given a guarantee that if there is a contract on the table and planning permission is granted, as everybody hopes, the Department will build a temporary school for these children to attend in September?

These people are well-educated. They do not want to see any politician, me included, any more. They believe nobody. I put aside my allegiance to my party and worked with the Minister's party colleague night after night to remove objections to the development. The Department was responsible for building the school. The Minister announced that a deal had been done but it has not been done.

The teachers, Maurice Daly and MaryCarpenter, were under serious pressure to get those children into the gym. The school of 600 had no room to move all winter but they succeeded. It was for the Department to set matters right. I know plans can run into difficulty and how hard the Department officials in Tullamore work. They have been courteous to everybody. We know that 2,300 classrooms need to be built. These people want to know what to plan for and where they are going. If planning permission is granted, for which the Department has applied, will the contracts be signed? Will the contracts which the Taoiseach announced on a visit a couple of weeks ago when he spoke of 1,000 new post-primary places for Laytown, be fulfilled? There is no site. The Department applied for planning permission on a site that it did not own. This put the livelihood of a local businessman, his wife and three children in jeopardy as they were seen as black sheep. The Department owes that man an apology.

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