Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I imagine the Minister is familiar with Pelletstown. It is just behind Ashtown. It is on the railway line. Is the Minister seriously saying to parents that this is the best he can offer? This is a 2,000 home development. They are mostly apartments but there is housing too and more housing is being built. The community has been building for ten years and the school has been open for almost three years. It is somewhat unbelievable that the Minister is unable to move to have the prefabs built on the marketing suite site by the end of September. Can the Minister give us a date for when the prefabs will be on-site?

The Minister made a somewhat ambiguous comment on the second issue. Let us be clear about it. I invite the Minister to visit the site. The parents and community want the permanent school to be built on this site. I understand the site is owned by the same landowners who own the other proposed site. Perhaps the Minister can confirm this. I have visited the other site but in my view it has many deficiencies.

This is a primary school. It is important for the new community to send out a message that it is their lovely primary school on a nice site. By the way, the school has already been in fairly unsatisfactory temporary accommodation. The school got into the marketing suite site. Can the Minister please explain to me why his Department will not now seek to acquire the marketing suite site and make it the permanent site for this school? The school is going to help to define and build a great community of people.

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