Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to raise this issue, along with Deputy Boyd Barrett, in the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon. I am raising the need for a new school building at Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, County Dublin. This issue affects many of my constituents in the north Wicklow area who attend the school in question. When the school was built in 1972, it was designed to cater for a maximum of 400 students in a building that was due to last for 20 years. At present, the school has 830 students, which is a real sign of its success in the community and the high regard in which it is held. It is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary in the same building, which was supposed to have been replaced after 20 years. The school first made contact with the then Department of Education regarding the need for a replacement building as long ago as 1995. Although many years have elapsed since then, it continues to find itself in this difficult situation. In February 2000, the Department's own inspectors published a report stating that a new building was required. Nine years later, the Department approved a new building at Newpark Comprehensive School to go to tender. Planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála in March 2011. The project was listed on the eTenders website in November 2011.

The Minister of State will understand the deep sense of disappointment among the students, parents and teachers at Newpark Comprehensive School, as well as the wider community, when the Minister, Deputy Quinn, announced in the 2012-16 schools building programme that the construction of a new school building would not take place until 2015 or 2016. This news was a source of substantial frustration because the school had been waiting for a long time for the new building that had been deemed necessary by the Department's inspectors. While we welcome the school building programme and the continued investment in schools, there has to be a degree of flexibility within the programme to allow schools that are urgently needed to be developed at a quicker pace. Newpark Comprehensive School is the only non-fee paying Church of Ireland school in a very wide area. I can go through some of the detail of the real issues that need to be resolved at the school with the Minister of State if he wishes. This matter needs to be attended to much more quickly. We welcome the fact that construction of a new school building is on the list, but it needs to happen now rather than in 2015.

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