Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter. We are increasingly a country of waiting lists. We have shocking waiting lists for social housing of up to 20 years in my area and we have shocking waiting lists for surgery in our health service. Gaelscoil Phádraig in Loughlinstown has possibly endured the longest wait of all, which is not a record it is happy with. It has waited 27 years for a permanent school building, which is almost unbelievable.

The school has been accommodated in prefabs on a 0.7 acre site for 27 years. Many of the prefabs date back to 2005, others to 2007 and a few are a little bit newer than that. Many pupils have gone through their entire primary school lives in prefabs, without a school hall and without the facilities we would expect for school plays and indoor sports activities. They have been in prefabs for all of that time. The reason for the delay is that they are waiting to move into the school building that is occupied by a special school, which in turn is waiting for completion of one of the 58 projects for which it was recently announced there would be further delays.

The Minister of State can imagine how gut-wrenching this is for Gaelscoil Phádraig, the pupils, teachers, school community and parents, after a 27-year wait and repeated promises that the construction of the Ballyowen Meadows Special School building would free up the building it is supposed to move into to finally get their school. That is not the case, however, and there is to be further delay. They have had promise after promise. For example, in 2020, the school met officials from the Department of Education's building unit and it was assured at that time that the project would drive ahead and construction would begin by the end of 2020. Still nothing has happened. Now it has heard that there will be a further delay and again it does not know what will happen.

The school will have its 30th anniversary in 2025 and at this stage it still does not know if, after 30 years of existence, it will be in its permanent school home by that time. This story could not be made up. That is a shocking, despicable and unacceptable way to treat this school, which, by the way, is a DEIS band 2 school in Loughlinstown, an area of significant disadvantage. The latest reply to a parliamentary question I received on this issue just the other day did not provide a commitment or clear timeline for when the school will gets its permanent building. The school wants to hear that there will be no further delay and it will be in its permanent school building before it reaches its 30th anniversary.

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