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

The Minister could alter it, for example, by subjecting it to compulsory purchase order. When I previously suggested this to the Minister his response was that the Department cannot do that but it can and does do so by asking local authorities to compulsorily purchase land for school building. I would suggest that the Minister do that in this instance and thus save the board of management and the wider Clonkeen College community the hardship of having to raise vast amounts of money to take a case to the High Court to save these pitches. The Department has invested in these pitches. They were upgraded and fenced with departmental funding. The sale of this land will impact on the capacity of the school to deliver recreational and sports facilities which matter. This provision is not an optional extra in education: it is critical in the context of the proper development of young people and in terms of tackling obesity by encouraging healthy exercise and so on. For these pitches to be sold and the Minister to stand idly by is unconscionable in terms of his responsibilities as Minister for Education and Skills for the education of these young people.

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