John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has mentioned cost-benefit for taxpayers. We are talking about taxpayers and pupils, learners who are going to be homeless. They will have nowhere to go at the end of April 2019. While the Minister is thinking of cost-benefit, I think of the benefit that will accrue for the pupils and their parents, as well as the teachers, and pupils who are due to enrol in that school next September. The school is due to increase to 300 pupils.

I do not take any comfort from what the Minister said. We need to move away from the BIFE site. The Department must immediately refocus and examine the Putland Road site. The school faces an immediate short-term crisis, because it will need temporary accommodation whatever happens. I mentioned the Colaiste Raíthín premises, which is not fit for purpose for a number of reasons. It is a split site and uses really old prefabricated classrooms and a VEC building; it is not fit for purpose and should be ruled out. That leaves the Putland Road site, where the school is currently based on a temporary basis. If the owner of that site is not open to extending the lease or to putting in place a licence, we must have a plan B, and I have not heard the Minister mention one. We need one, and I am hopeful that such an alternative plan will be outlined at the meeting with the patrons of the school and the principal tomorrow.

I am not getting any solid answers from the Minister, and I did not get any solid answers from his predecessor over the past two years. Immediate answers are required. Without them, 180 pupils will have no school at the end of April next year, and 60 of those will be sitting their junior certificate examinations in a hedge school. I am sure the Minister does not want that to happen on his watch, and I, as a Deputy for that constituency, certainly do not want it to happen on my watch. The Minister has spoken about other Ministers. He referenced the Minister for Health. I remind him that he is the Minister for Education and Sills and that it is his sole responsibility.

See this speech in context