Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to the schools building programme and particularly to the PPP school bundle 5, which I first raised in January. The difficulties caused by the liquidation of Carillion have been compounded somewhat with the de facto construction company, the Sammon Group, going into examinership more recently.

Six schools are at stake here. They are located in my own constituency of Wexford, in the towns of Bray and Kells, and two are located in Carlow. There are real difficulties now. When I first raised this issue in January, I was assured that it would be resolved in a matter of weeks. We are now heading towards May and we do not have a resolution. Needless to say, I am regularly in touch with the National Development Finance Agency is respect of these matters. I still do not have a clear horizon on when the completed Loreto secondary school in Wexford will be handed over. It is ready. It had actually gone through a deep clean before formal handover. It is now lying idle. More worryingly, an official in the Department of Education and Skills has indicated to the school that it should prepare contingency plans for the school not being available for the new term in September. In terms of subject choices, the school had intended to expand its range of teachers. That would be impossible. I do not expect the Taoiseach to have a detailed answer to this at his fingertips, but will he take a direct personal interest in ensuring that these completed schools are brought into public use as soon as possible?

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