Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Lahart for raising this. He has more than eloquently outlined the history of Gaelscoil Chnoc Liamhna, which has been on the Department's six year programme. As he outlined, the Department has been working with South Dublin County Council to acquire the site on which it is currently located in temporary accommodation in order to facilitate the permanent building. Agreement in principle in respect of the proposed acquisition was reached in 2006 and a section 183 disposal to the Department of Education and Skills was approved by South Dublin County Council in February 2007. However, there were title issues with a small portion of the property which needed to be rectified by the council in order for the project to progress. Council officials endeavoured to rectify the title issues on this portion of land over a number of years in order to enable the disposal of the full site. In order to rectify the matter, the council proceeded with a compulsory purchase order process to allow the side acquisition to progress. The order was confirmed in May 2016 and a vesting order was subsequently made, with the land vesting in South Dublin County Council at the end of June 2017. The local authority was then in a position to commence the conveyancing process to convey the site to the Department. Draft contracts in respect of the transfer were received in September and my officials have been liaising with local authority officials with a view to advancing matters since then. While due diligence must apply in relation to the legal site transfer, the Department is not aware of any specific issues at this time which would impede the site acquisition.

It is intended to progress the project to architectural planning shortly, with a view to running the design stage in parallel with the completion of the conveyancing process. My Department is working to ensure that a new building for Gaelscoil Chnoc Liamhna is delivered as soon as possible. Running the design work in parallel will ensure there is no unnecessary delay from now on.

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