Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome pupils, teachers and parents from Clonkeen College, Dún Laoghaire, who are in the Gallery. A couple of weeks ago at the beginning of May, they were utterly shocked to discover that the school patrons, the Christian Brothers, planned to sell the school playing fields. These 8.5 acres of grass playing pitches adjoin the school and have been used by the school for many years for sport and outdoor activities. The school found that the lands were to be sold to a property developer for private development.

This is a non-fee paying school that draws its pupils from all over the Dún Laoghaire area. The fields are used by the pupils and a host of local community football clubs, GAA clubs and others. These fields are to be taken from the school, thereby substantially degrading the facilities available to it. The Department of Education and Skills invested €10 million on the refurbishment of the school and the management there spent more than €650,000 on draining and fencing off the fields. Approximately €300,000 of the latter was funding paid to the school by the Department. All of that investment is to be lost. A moderate special needs unit built adjacent to the hard court area will have to be relocated and this will impact on the special needs students in the school. It is outrageous. The Christian Brothers are justifying this sale on the grounds that they owe €10 million to the redress board. There is no doubt but that the Christian Brothers should pay their outstanding debt to the redress board in respect of the abuse they were guilty of visiting upon a previous generation of young people. However, it would be a supreme irony and an absolute outrage if the current and future generations of young people are to be made pay for the crimes of the Christian Brothers against previous generations. That would compound one crime against young people with a further crime against them.

I and, more importantly, the parents, the local community, the teachers and the pupils are asking the Minister to intervene urgently before this sale proceeds and they have a number of questions for the Minister. Does the Minister believe it is acceptable for the Christian Brothers to sacrifice and degrade school facilities at the expense of school students? That a patron body of a school is attacking its students and facilities is scandalous. When the Christian Brothers presented the plan - which, clearly, was hatched some time ago - to the school earlier this week, they said that the Minister knew about it. I hope that is not true. Did the Minister know about it and is he aware that the Christian Brothers promised in 2008 that those lands would be given under licence to the school for as long as it is in existence? They had an agreement with the school. Is the Minister aware of that agreement and does he believe it is acceptable that it is being torn up?

The school's students have been betrayed by the Christian Brothers. We are hoping that the Minister will intervene to prevent this sale going ahead and to protect the facilities at the school.

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