John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending. I understand the Minister for Education and Skills cannot attend and I am okay with that such is the urgency of this issue. I am delighted to have a Cabinet-ranking Minister present and she might bring back the concerns of the local community on this.

Knocklyon, Firhouse and Ballycullen are growing areas. The Department of Education and Skills decided to provide a 1,000 pupil post-primary school in the area and patronage was granted to Educate Together. The school is to be called Firhouse Educate Together secondary school. It applied for planning permission a year ago on a site that was turned down pretty dramatically. The Department is in search of a site for the school and, to the best of my knowledge, has located one off the Old Court Road in Ballycullen. Coincidentally, last Friday week I visited the school and met the Minister's colleague and my constituency colleague, the Minister, Deputy Zappone. Where the school is housed at present is between two new schools. These are Firhouse Educate Together national school and Gaelscoil Na Giuise. We were given a guided walk between the two school buildings. What we saw, and the Minister, Deputy Zappone, can testify to this, was a thriving, creative and incredibly impressive learning and teaching environment. Everybody we met, from Claire Matthews, the principal, to the students, secretarial staff and all the ancillary staff, made an incredibly happy school environment.

Yesterday, the principal emailed me to say that since we met last Friday week the Department had been in touch with the school with a proposal for the school to move to temporary accommodation in Citywest for a period of between 18 to 24 months, depending on the length of time needed to acquire its permanent site and construct a section of a permanent building to house the students. The Minister was speaking about the old days. Citywest is 10 km or 11 km away. That is ten or 11 Dublin kilometres at peak time. The Department may as well try to move the school to Dawson Street or Kildare Street. That is the length of the distance and the dramatic impact it would have.

This would be disastrous for the school community. It would no longer be situated in the community. It would need to bus the students from the general Firhouse and Ballycullen area out to Citywest at peak time and bus them back in the afternoon. It is a very far from satisfactory arrangement. The Department is willing to fund the buses but there would be so many challenges regarding the health and safety of the students, never mind concerns about sustainability and the environment, which are no longer secondary issues.

Considering the level of need the school has among the student body it would result in an added layer of significant stress for the students and the team on a daily basis. It would be such a dramatic dislocation of a school that is just breathing in its first air and taking its first steps in the community in permanent buildings that it neither owns, occupies nor has a right to. Dislocating it from the community in very dramatic circumstances removes the type of oxygen that a post-primary school needs to survive, thrive and establish itself.

The Department shared this news with the school community and I will speak about that in my second contribution. At the particular meeting with the parents following the meeting with the Department, the principal had to tell the departmental officials that perhaps it was not the right time for Firhouse Educate Together secondary school if viable accommodation cannot be found in Firhouse, and that perhaps closing the school is the only option.

I stand by the school, the staff, the students and the local community. It is one of the most exciting educational initiatives to take place in the community. A 1,000 pupil post-primary school is a significant educational footprint. To dislocate it and suggest it ought to be relocated 10 km away will kill it. It is that simple and there is no argument. I would like the Minister to convey this to the Minister for Education and Skills.

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