Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for facilitating this urgent if short debate on a matter of some importance in the Laois-Offaly constituency. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, for attending. Some weeks ago, the House was told that 58 school building projects have been placed on hold due to some financial pressures. The project at Kolbe Special School in Portlaoise is one of them. The school is currently catering for 43 children aged between four and 18 years. All of them have severe to profound learning disability issues. Due to a lack of space, the current building no longer has a sensory room. The physical education hall is full of equipment due to a lack of storage facilities. In short, the building is totally inadequate.

The school has been visited by three Ministers for Education over the last decade. The poor conditions in the school have been highlighted on national television. In 2019, it was announced that Kolbe Special School was one of 17 schools to be included in the Department of Education's accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering programme, known as ADAPT 2. Just days after the preliminary works started at the site in Portlaoise, staff, parents and students were informed that the works had been placed on hold, pending a budget review. The Department of Education has stated that the planning and building unit is currently assessing its work programme and reassessing its priorities for 2023 in the context of overall budgetary requirements.

See this speech in context