Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak. I thank the Minister for being here at this ungodly hour. She is well aware of the issue with the Carrigtohill Community College campus. I will always give credit where credit is due. The issues were not the fault of the Department. There were many issues with the planning and mistakes were made. I also want to acknowledge that a temporary campus was set up in Fota Park. In early December, children from Carrigtohill village were trying to walk and cycle to the temporary campus. Some paths were very dangerous and overgrown, and I thank Cork County Council for moving very swiftly on that. It made the area very safe.

I suspect other Deputies in east Cork have also been in contact with many worried parents and children. I ask for clarity on when the work in the community college will be finished and when students can return to it. This is not just an issue that affects east Cork, but we have struggled for the past ten years with school places and transport, disability services and SNAs. I pass the site twice a week. I have watched progress from afar and have visited it. The roads have been built and the lighting has been installed.

I have been involved in construction for 22 years so I know water and sewerage services etc., need to go in first.

I am here as a representative of the people of east Cork, particularly the families in Carrigtohill, Midleton and surrounding areas who are hoping to get their children into the schools. They have asked me to ask the Minister to provide a step-by-step plan. We were promised that the tender would be awarded in quarter 1 of this year. Can I get definitive dates to give to the people of Carrigtohill and the surrounding areas for when it will start and when it is intended to be finished. That is all I need to know because this is putting so much stress on families.

I have had it for the last two years in particular in the summer months because we do not take a break in the summer months when we need to deal with school places, school transport, disability services and obviously special needs assistants in schools in east Cork. It is very difficult. Parents have been extremely stressed and they feel like they are pitting principals against other principals. I have spoken to principals in schools in east Cork who have been challenged in supermarkets on their day off. This should not be happening. I am not pointing the finger. It is not the Minister's fault; it is just the system.

Can we get clarity on when the whole system will be set up? When will it start? What is the definitive date when children in the east Cork area can move into the community college on Station Road? I am not here to bash people all the time. We are on the Topical Issue Debate and the purpose is to try to get answers. People sometimes forget the effort that people make. We have the temporary campus, but people are in fear that this temporary campus could be in use for ten years. I am trying to get clarity from the Minister.

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