Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is right in some respects. This school was promised a new building in 2013 and it has been waiting a hell of a long time. It is currently working out of very substandard accommodation. Despite that, it is fortunate to have excellent teachers and the quality of education has not been diminished. However, it is not right and not fair for the students and the teachers to have to put up with the facilities they are operating from.

There was an absolute logjam in September because, at the Department's request, the school took in an additional junior infants class and the traffic was serious. I compliment the school authorities for staggering the opening hours to facilitate better access. While I accept there has been bad weather and unforeseen circumstances, and the council has allowed the contractor a one-month extension, we are now talking about a completion date of April of next year, which is much longer than a month. Unforeseen circumstances are understandable but having a skeleton staff working on the development is not unforeseen circumstances. We need to bring pressure on this contractor to accelerate the effort to get these pupils into their new school without further delay.

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