Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for giving me some time on this important issue. We are looking clarity on the campus development at Ballinrea, Carrigaline. I received a reply to a parliamentary question on 11 May which was very non-committal and evasive. I sought a timeframe for the development of the school, details of when it would go to tender and construction and when it would be occupied. I also sought an assurance that the capital funding was in place.

The campus is to have three schools and the current Gaelscoil in Carrigaline is bursting at the seams having become a three-stream school on the encouragement of the Department. The Gaelcholáiste is a new school and parents who are considering their child there want certainty that the new school building in Ballinrea will be ready in the near future. The Sonas special junior school for children on the autism spectrum has expanded across two sites in Carrigaline, which is far from ideal. Is the Department fully committed to this project and when is it going to go ahead to tender and construction? A reply from the Minister last November indicated that the Department was considering a fee schedule from the design team but a reply of the past two weeks stated that only a part of the fee schedule had been approved. That concerns me deeply. We need certainty for the three schools in question and the wider community they serve.

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