Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for agreeing to this important debate.

The Sundai campus or site is an important one in the overall plan for educational development in the greater Newbridge area. It is important in that it has supplied a site for Gaelscoil Cill Dara and a proposed site for the Newbridge Educate Together national school. Both schools were operating in facilities that were not suitable for their needs and in which we would not ask any educational facility to operate.

It was with the goodwill of two local landowners and a local sports club that the new facilities were made available. This proposal has overcome problems to some degree. The gaelscoil was offered a section of the campus and provided with a number of classrooms and a play area. However, when the second aspect of the proposal, the co-location of the Educate Together national school, emerged following the Department's planning application to Kildare County Council, there was suddenly a great awareness among the parents of gaelscoil students of major deficiencies in the proposal with regard to equal provision of facilities for children on the site. While welcoming the development, there must be serious concerns regarding the safe transfer of pupils from the main road, known locally as the green road, to the co-location site. Questions have also been raised about what appear to be excellent recreational facilities contained in the Educate Together application when compared to those contained, or in reality not contained, in the gaelscoil proposal.

With regard to the first point, the transfer of pupils from the green road or main road to the site, the most important consideration must be the safety of the children which must not be compromised in any way. It seems the treatment of this issue in the planning application leaves much to be desired. Given the fact that the planning application is in the name of the Department of Education and Science, the importance of underpinning all of the safety factors involved in ensuring the safety of children using the school is increased. In such instances, the Department should set the example for others to follow.

Irrespective of the decision of the local authority, there can be no compromise in regard to child safety. Sadly, however, this expectation has not been realised in the way one would expect from the Department. The section of the planner's report dealing with the safety factor states:

Road design is no objection to the proposed development subject to the following conditions... As permission has already been granted...

It beggars belief that this is the situation in regard to a planning application in the name of the Minister. Subsequently, an appeal was made by the parents to An Bord Pleanála. Even in this case, a subsequent letter from the road design section of the council was not accepted by the board because it was late for submission. In making this application the Department has not observed the necessary safety factors one would expect in regard to the safety of pupils in both schools. This leaves much to be desired.

A second consideration applies to the recreational facilities aspect of the application. Both schools have totally different values set down, as one will note from the planning application. On the face of it, the Educate Together national school has excellent facilities, including a PE hall, a junior play area and two other play areas, whereas Gaelscoil Cill Dara has just one play area. What has been offered to the Educate Together national school is wonderful but one cannot relate this to what was offered to the gaelscoil. Given that the average numbers attending both schools on the campus are practically equal, it is extremely difficult to understand how this is acceptable.

I have always found the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Hoctor, to be honest and hardworking, with a vision of the educational needs of the country. While one may not always agree with this vision, that is politics. However, in this instance there is a need for basic provision for both schools using the campus. It is a simple issue. There should be fair play and safe access for both schools, which is not much to ask. Will the Minister agree to consider the file and see for herself the deficiencies in what her Department is seeking to provide for one school when compared to what it has offered the other? How can the Department stand over the obvious safety concerns in both educational facilities? In the interests of fair play to all students in both schools and their families, the Minister should have a rethink on the proper development of the campus.

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