Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise in the Dáil this issue which is obviously causing a great deal of confusion in my constituency and in the constituencies of Dublin North and Dublin North-East.

As the Minister may be aware, an announcement was made by Fingal County Council to the effect that somewhere between 13 and 17 school sites would be acquired in a very short period to provide much needed primary and secondary schools by September 2008, apparently under a form of new design and build contracts into which the Department is entering. Since then it has been impossible to establish whether the Department stands over this announcement or the location of any of these 13 sites. Are they in Balbriggan, Swords, Castleknock, Blanchardstown? We do not need to know their exact location but roughly whereabouts in our county of nearly 250,000 people these school sites will be.

Can the Department assure us that all these schools will be in place by September 2008? I have grave doubts about that. In many cases the sites are not acquired. When they are acquired, planning permission will take at least three months with the council and in some cases another four to five months through An Bord Pleanála. Then the schools must be built.

It seems this announcement made by Fingal County Council, but in the presence of Department of Education and Science officials, was quite irresponsible. I am asking for clarity from the Department. Does it stand over that announcement, will it inform the House where these sites are and can it guarantee parents and children in Dublin 15, Dublin North and Dublin North-East, who are concerned that just like last year they will not have a school to which to send their children, that these 13 schools will be in place and open by September 2008? If not, how many will be and how long will it take for all 13 to be delivered?

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