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

I appreciate this being included on the Topical Issue agenda today. It is a local issue, especially in the parish of Ballyroan, where Sancta Maria College is located. I thank the Minister of State for her attendance to take the question. It is a serious issue.

As background, Sancta Maria College has a brand new building. It is barely open. It cost the taxpayer a lot of money. It is proud educational infrastructure in the heart of the community. It is an all girls school, serving the local community of Ballyroan, Ballyboden, Knocklyon, Firhouse and beyond. It was with great shock, given the efforts made by the Minister for Education and Skills, departmental officials, teachers on the ground, school staff, including caretaking staff, secretarial staff and ancillary staff, parents and children to get back to school and to ensure that the school community was up and running even with the severe restrictions and challenges posed by Covid, that the school found itself in a situation this week when the heating system broke down. Obviously these things happen but the school was then told it would be closed until next week. A consequence of this is that pupils returned home. It is of particular consequence and anxiety to students and their parents who are studying for the leaving certificate to be sent home and to lose time, having already lost three to four months of the school curriculum in the lead-up to the leaving certificate in 2021. They were then told that learning has to move online, which has proven satisfactory in some subject areas and unsatisfactory in others.

I raise this issue today as a matter of priority on their behalf.

I hope the Minister of State will have news on funding to be provided, if necessary, to repair the heating system in a brand new school. She may also be able to give the community some information on how a system like this can break down so soon into its operation and lifespan. Will she give some kind of reassurance to the school community, and the students and parents in particular, on when normal operations will resume at Sancta Maria College?

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