Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Calleary for raising this very important issue, which I know is of great concern to parents in various parts of Dublin at the moment. Unfortunately, up to 40 schools around the country, and not just in Dublin, could be affected. The safety of students and staff has to be our paramount consideration and I know that everyone in this House will agree. We are also deeply conscious of the disruption and inconvenience that is being caused to staff, children and parents as a result of some of these school closures. We very much appreciate people's understanding in that regard. I thank the school principals and the boards of management of the three schools affected at the moment. They are being regularly updated as inspection schedules are confirmed and as issues are identified. We appreciate their patience and understanding also. A dedicated contact person has been appointed within the Department who is the contact person for the school principals and the boards of management.

I appreciate that there is an information deficit. Deputy Calleary is right to bring that to our attention. There is an information deficit for a reason. The reason is we do not have all the information. The situation is still evolving and will evolve over the next two to three weeks.

Significant structural issues were discovered at Ardgillan community college by a structural engineer on 19 October. The issues relate to phase 1 of the school building that was built in 2009 by Western Building Systems under a design and build contract on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. Phase 2, which was built at a later date in 2015, is unaffected. Having considered the engineer's advice, and in the interest of health and safety of the students and staff at the school, the Dublin-Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board made the decision to close phase 1 of the school immediately. Structural assessments were also carried out yesterday on 23 October at Tyrrelstown Educate Together and the adjoining St. Luke's national school, which were built by the same company. Similar structural issues to those identified at Ardgillan were also identified in those schools. While no imminent danger was identified, both schools are being closed as a precautionary measure to allow for further detailed investigations. The target is to have interim accommodation in place for when pupils return to school after the mid-term break next week. We intend to use the next couple of days and the opportunity of the mid-term break to check the various schools involved. We will not know the scale of the problem, probably until the end of next week or the week after. We need to assess if this only affects schools built in that 2008-2014 period, or if it also affects schools built in more recent years. An examination of a school in Firhouse is happening at the moment to see if the structural flaws may also affect schools built in the last couple of years. The schools that have been closed are all three storey schools. We do not know yet if these structural flaws apply to single storey or second storey schools. It will take all of next week, and perhaps the week after, for us to establish the extent of this problem.

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