Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In 2009, the board of management wrote to the Minister requesting an extension to the school. In 2010, that was refused and it was told it would get a new school. The school was regarded as fit for purpose for 800 pupils but, in fact, it was catering for 1,000. Obviously, that is a growing number in a developing area. The board of management wrote requesting, as Deputy Durkan said, a junior-senior system as opposed to two schools. The patronage was subsequently granted to the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board, KWETB.

The design and planning began and in December 2015, the tender report was submitted to the Department. Four months later, the Department responded to the school with ten questions and some reductions were sought. That was responded to and there appears to be some confusion in the Department about whether a full response has been made. The KWETB said it has but the Department said it had not received it. Alterations to traffic signals in the town have been requested. The KWETB would only be a contributor to that because there are many other things happening, plus a traffic management survey. The KWETB is happy to give a letter of guarantee, so that there is no ongoing issue in that regard.

We are trying to find out whether the funding is secure, when the tender will be issued and when the project is expected to commence because the tender lasts for a year and that would be up to about October of this year. There is a critical timeline in that if the school is not delivered by September 2018, the Department will then incur expenses in the form of temporary accommodation because there is not adequate accommodation. The timeline is critically important. The key issue is that there are rumours circulating that there is doubt about the timeline for the project and that needs to be responded to. I hope the Minister will be able to do that today.

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