Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise the important subject of the provision of a new school for Athlone Community College. This is not a mushroom-type project of which the Minister and his Department has only recently become aware. On the contrary, the Minister and his Department officials are fully conversant with this important project for Athlone. A detailed feasibility study was carried out on it in 2002 and 2003. Athlone Community College was constructed in the 1970s, backed by funding from the World Bank. The building clearly had a limited lifespan which has now been greatly exceeded. The rationale for putting in place a new school has been clearly proven and all that is required is to ensure the old building is replaced immediately. No ifs or buts — replacement with a top-class building capable of catering for 1,000 pupils is immediately needed.

The building currently accommodates 860 pupils and there was no equivocation when the decision was made to construct a new building. Following the aforementioned feasibility study, the school authorities were informed that it had been placed in priority banding 1, a decisive indication that a new school was the only way forward. I salute the school principal, Val O'Connor, and all the teachers who, together with the board of management and the parents' association, must be rightly proud of the excellent academic achievements of the school's pupils over the last number of years, complemented by their heroic achievements on the sporting and cultural fields.

In this context, let us retrace the history of this project, which, unbelievably, appears to have been put in cold storage despite unqualified assurances and commitments by the Minister of State's senior Minister, Deputy Hanafin, in correspondence in November 2006 to both former Deputy Cassidy and Gearóid Ó Brádaigh, chief executive officer of Westmeath VEC, that it was full steam ahead for the school building project. To former Deputy Cassidy, the Minister stated in her letter that the school was authorised to commence architectural planning with immediate effect. It was indicated in this correspondence that the building unit of her Department would shortly be in contact with the school to outline how the project would progress. As expected, the Department's building unit, on 16 November 2006, some eight days later, contacted Mr. Ó Brádaigh indicating that the proposed development of Athlone Community College was one of the projects selected to proceed with immediate effect. After this, to facilitate the initiation of the design phase of the school project, the interested parties were invited to meet with officials in Tullamore on Wednesday, 13 December 2006. They duly attended and came away heartened that no obstacles would be placed in the path of the advancement of this important project. We were all greatly satisfied with that assurance. Indeed, one of the participants recalls only too well the assertion by the officials at the meeting that the only people who could delay the project were the clients — that is, the VEC. That was music to everyone's ears because the VEC was on the button and was pressing ahead. It was confident that a new school would be in place at the end of 2010 or 2011 at the latest. That was the target set out in the school project feasibility study, and Kinnegad was also mentioned in this regard.

We can imagine their shock, then, when in response to a letter of 2 April 2008 from the CEO — he also wrote in December 2007 — expressing concern about the complete standstill and absence of any progress in the project over a period of several months, the Minister replied in a letter dated 9 April 2008 that a developing areas unit had been set up in her Department to focus on the school accommodation needs of rapidly developing areas, including the area to which the CEO referred — namely Athlone — and that in this context the status of the project was to be assessed and progression of the project would be considered in the context of the multi-annual school building and modernisation programme. This was a stalling exercise, no more and no less. What further review is required? Surely the Minister of State does not intend to waste valuable time and resources by trying to reinvent the wheel. The reassessment surely has the sole purpose of delaying the progress of this important project. The status of the project has already been decided by the Department's officials and any further attempt to change the goalposts or procrastinate about status will be seen for what it is — the diversion of money that has been designated for an important centre of learning in Athlone — which, along with Mullingar and Tullamore, is one of the gateway towns of County Westmeath — to other areas of the country, notably the eastern seaboard and Dublin in particular. This should not happen. Money should be provided for every new school that is required. It should not be a question of either one school or another. There are schools needed all over the country and if we do not have the money to provide the necessary educational accommodation, we could readily borrow funding for the purpose of providing much needed schools.

At a special meeting of County Westmeath VEC on Monday, 28 April 2008 — only a couple of days ago — members unanimously called upon the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, to meet a deputation to ensure there will be no further delays, foot-dragging or procrastination in this important project, and that it will proceed as planned in the original timetable. I call upon the Minister of State to meet with his senior Minister to ensure that this project goes ahead as planned and that she will meet the deputation, as requested by me in a letter to her dated 28 April 2008. I look forward to a positive reply from the Minister of State. He is well aware of how important schools are in giving an opportunity to people to start off well in their educational fields.

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