Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. I am disappointed that she will not agree to meet the school to discuss the project's future or to ensure that she is up to speed regarding the school's current facilities and its need for a new building. Unfortunately, approximately half of the school's classrooms consist of prefabs and the permanent classrooms have been in place for so long that they are small and still use school desks with ink wells. That should emphasise the need for an agreement on a new building.

This project was included in the previous school buildings programme.

When the former Minister, Mary Coughlan, was in office it was approved but the former Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, removed it. On that basis, it is all the more important that the current Minister should agree to meet a delegation from the school. I know that the school's representatives have written to the Minister specifically requesting such a meeting. I have already tabled a parliamentary question asking the Minister to agree to meet the delegation. The representatives deserve that and it would also be useful for the Minister to meet with them. I know the school representatives are engaging constructively with departmental officials as well as with the design team working on the site, which has already been secured, to develop it towards planning.

It needs to go back into the schools buildings programme, however, so that funding will be there once planning permission is obtained. That is why it is important to meet the school representatives face to face, particularly as the school has been removed from the list. The Minister should discuss their concerns and the problems they are facing at the moment, with a view to ensuring that the school is placed in a new schools capital programme.

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