Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is the story of three very important schools in Celbridge, County Kildare. One is St. Raphael's Special School, in respect of which it was determined 20 years ago that it urgently needed replacement. The plans are now advancing, but whether they are advancing fast enough remains to be seen because there were some title issues, some of which are still outstanding. Our colleague has arranged a meeting with the Minister next week, and it is to be hoped some further information will be available at that. In the meantime, we wish to emphasise the absolute urgency of the case. The other two schools are Scoil Naomh Pádraig and Celbridge Community School. There are three schools on the one site.

Negotiations have to take place with the roads section in Kildare County Council and traffic management for the area needs to be co-ordinated, along with the yielding of the title to the site. Without all of those things coming together at the same time, we will not be able to proceed in the way we want to. I hope that all goes well. We have waited for this for a long time. The local community is very anxious and we now call on the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, who cannot be here for reasons that are quite well known at this time of the week, to address this.

I hope the Minister of State will convey to the Minister the absolute urgency of the situation. We hope to meet her face-to-face next week, during which time we will raise these matters again. We hope this will bring the bacon home for the people of Celbridge who are anxiously awaiting news.

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