Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. Much of the Minister's reply goes through the history of it, which is exactly what we heard the last time I raised it in March of last year. The site has been acquired. As I understand it, the conveyance matter should not take long. This is an issue of priority.

From the time St. Michael's House was founded in 1955, it has helped to change fundamentally how we as a country educate people with intellectual disabilities. It has been a leader in the development of community-based services for people with intellectual disabilities, providing services to 1,751 children and adults.

St. Michael's House has demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout the years but if it is to deliver its vital service, it requires assistance from the State in the form of a new building and facilities worthy of its staff and deserving of its pupils and their families.

The school community needs a new school delivered. It needs the Department to provide this as a priority by getting work under way as soon as possible. The people are waiting to see machines go on that site. If they can see that, they will take hope from it. From where the process is, that should not take too long. It needs to be accelerated.

I have been working closely with the school in recent times. I am aware of the various developments and reasons for delays, but I cannot emphasise strongly enough how stretched the school is. Pupils cannot take their required breaks. There are also pressures on space from a staff perspective, which has a direct effect on how well they can deliver their services to the pupils.

St. Michael's House is a special school and as such has special requirements unlike mainstream schools, but these requirements are not so special that an inordinate delay should occur.

I ask this Minister to be the one this school has been waiting for who finally delivers this project. The Irish are a compassionate people who want to see fellow citizens treated equally and fairly. I want to see this progress as soon as possible.

There is a wider concern I want to raise in the couple of seconds I have left.

Throughout my 12 years as a Member of the Oireachtas, school building programmes have come and gone. Special schools tend to factored in at the tail end of each school programme and are never given priority. They are never provided for upfront in year one or two of the programme but, rather, are afforded low priority. They tend not to be delivered and are then rolled into the next programme. On and on it goes. The Minister is new to the Department and there is an opportunity for him to make his mark. He must root out this approach to how the Department treats special schools and he will be a hero of the disability sector. They very much deserve it.

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