Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. The campus will accommodate Crana College secondary school, Gaelscoil Buncrana primary school and Gaelcholáiste Chineál Eoghain secondary school. The school authorities are at their wit's end because of the delays in, first, acquiring a site and, second, moving the process forward to the construction of new schools to accommodate their needs. The premises they are in currently are not suitable. Crana College students are cramped in a number of prefabs with no more space available while Gaelcholáiste Chineál Eoghain is based in Tullyarvan Mill, which is not ideal.

Gaelscoil Buncrana is accommodated in Buncrana Youth Club, which is not an ideal premises for a school. That school badly needs a new premises.

It is long past time that the dilly dallying by the Department stopped. This site acquisition has been badly mishandled in recent years and no progress has been made on it to date. The process cannot move forward without a site being acquisitioned. I acknowledge the Minister met representatives of the schools together with the education and training board, ETB, at its request. He would have met the chairperson of the ETB, Councillor Rena Donaghey, who is from Buncrana and pushing hard for this to progress. Can the Minister give a timeline and a commitment that he will prioritise the purchasing of a site and that we will at last see progress on this project?

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