Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is an example of very poor departmental planning. We have had the dislocation of students and the undermining of their accommodation repeatedly over a period of months. A new school in a new community should be discussing the curriculum and community development. However, the children attending this school have had to write to their local representatives about remaining at the existing site and preventing themselves being bussed from one place to another.

In September 2015, the school started out in a bunker or basement with no natural light. Planning delays in 2017 meant pupils had to be bussed to different locations. In February 2019, we had an accommodation crisis and fears that the school could not properly open for incoming children in September 2019. Again, there were more delays and poor forward planning from the Department. Recently, and despite a permanent build occurring but with no diggers on site, as Deputy Burton stated, the potential dislocation of pupils in the early part of next year arose again. What is the forward-planning unit of the Department of Education and Skills doing? Why is it allowing a cliff-edge crisis to arise again and again in respect of this school? Pelletstown and the wider Royal Canal and Rathborne area is a new community where there is excellent parental involvement. The children and teachers have great pride in their school but they are having to deal with this cliff-edge approach by the Department whereby potential dislocation arises on an ongoing basis. I ask the Minister of State to provide an update on the current situation. Will there be absolute certainty regarding the accommodation of pupils next year in order that there is a smooth transition from the temporary site to the permanent site? What is the Department doing by way of forward planning to address this ongoing cliff-edge approach which is not fit for purpose in the context of the budgetary allocations it is providing?

See this speech in context