Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta fáchoinne an ábhair seo a ardú inniu. Ábhar iontach tábhachtach atá ann. Tuigim na deacrachtaí agus na míbhuntáistí atá i gceist agus tuigim an frustrachas atá ar an bpobal, ar na scoláirí, ar na tuismitheoirí agus ar na múinteoirí uilig sa cheantar.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, as it gives me the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the current position regarding Holy Family primary school, Mullingar, previously known as Curraghmore national school. I am conscious that this new school building project was in gestation for many years before it went to site in 2017. The project, which has been devolved for delivery to Westmeath County Council, will provide a new school building comprising 16 classrooms and a special needs unit.

It is in the nature of any building project that difficulties can arise. The objective always is to deal with these as efficiently as possible in order to minimise delays as well as costs. However, these difficulties can lead to some additional costs by way of request for change orders by the contractor and can arise during the construction period of any building contract.

The initial delays with this school project arose primarily because the contractor encountered bad unforeseen ground conditions together with severe weather events.

In addition, as with any building contract, issues may arise that form disputes between the design team and the contractor. There is nothing unusual about this and the public works contract provides dispute resolution mechanisms to deal with such matters. A number of issues of this nature have arisen on the Holy Family project and these have been referred to conciliation in accordance with the contract. Most of the matters are still being considered within the conciliation process, so I am limited in what I can say in that respect.

Let the House be in no doubt that I consider that the delays which have arisen in recent months are completely unacceptable for all concerned, particularly as the school will have to continue to operate from unsatisfactory conditions with an increasing number of enrolments until its new building is ready. The programme provided by the contractor which had indicated a completion date in July was most recently changed to provide for a completion date in October. Westmeath County Council has expressed to the contractor its disappointment with the level of resources on site and the slow progress of the construction programme. However, I can inform the House that the council reported to my officials earlier today that there has been a significant improvement in the activity on site. The project is well over 80% complete, with only the installation of doors remaining to make the project fully protected against the elements. On that basis, I am hopeful that the project will be completed in October as now planned. I am conscious that lists of dates have been previously mentioned and that we are now giving another date, this time in October. I am also conscious of the deep frustration of parents and the board of management and I wish to acknowledge the various stakeholders who have been persevering with the project. Deputy Burke cannot be accused of ignoring this issue. He keeps raising it with me formally and informally and I know that is something that will ensure that we can meet the October deadline.

In the meantime, my Department has met and worked closely with the patron and school authorities of Holy Family in order to put in place contingency arrangements to ensure that the needs of the school for the coming academic year are being met. It is unfortunate, given that the building will not now be ready by September 2019, that these plans will have to be activated. As already stated, the school authorities and the patron of a school in Kinnegad have kindly agreed to provide temporary accommodation for a number of special needs pupils as an alternative to home tuition for those children. The Department will be providing the funding needed to facilitate this arrangement. I wish to express my thanks to the patron and school management of that school and the personnel, including the clerk of works, whom I met in a portakabin on the site when the Deputy and I visited it. I thank them for their efforts to ensure that we will achieve this timeline in October. One of my team members is from County Westmeath and very aware of this project, which he raises on a weekly basis. Decanting from the old to the new school will not be a problem because the new premises is only around the corner. We will keep it on the agenda and I have no doubt that the Deputy will keep me up to date over the summer.

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