Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I received a text today from the Minister's secretary to inform me the Minister would not be here tonight but she has agreed to meet me tomorrow. Otherwise I would not have taken the debate tonight without somebody from the Department being here. I want to put this on the record. When I meet the Minister tomorrow, I will be putting this matter to her face to face.

The reason I raise this issue tonight is that yesterday I went to meet the board of management and the principal after school and I was appalled to see the conditions under which the teachers, pupils and board of management must operate. It is really disgraceful. On 18 February 2022, a new school was announced for the Sacred Heart School, Westport. It was under the auspices of CEIST. We are a year on and the conditions they have to work in are unbelievable. More money has been spent on prefabs, extensions and trying to keep the school together than would have built three new schools. Officials of the Department of Education called to the school and saw what was there. They were so appalled that within a few weeks after I and other people had made strong representations, they agreed a new school would be built. Yet we are into another year. Perhaps the Minister of State will respond tonight and I thank him for coming in. What is the up-to-date position and when will we see a design team? When will we see the school being approved? When will we see work on the ground at the school?

The current enrolment of the school is 574 pupils, with 385 of them in conditions that include asbestos. There are bags under the roof to collect the asbestos that falls off. There is contaminated water. They are there with mops and buckets. There is an old engine room. The school building goes back almost 100 years. That is what the school is operating in.

To me it is not acceptable to see a Government having a surplus of almost €10 billion. We saw 58 schools taken off the list and put back onto the list again. I am putting this on the record. I made an announcement about that school on 18 February 2023 and I do not make announcements if I do not have facts. I have an email from the Department stating a new school has been approved and I want to know what is happening with that school. I want to know where we are and I do not want to be back here again because I will be raising this on the Order of Business each week until something is done about this issue.

When the Government and the Department give a commitment, there should be action. They will have seen what has happened here. We will have a court case brought by a child or a parent. There is a health and safety issue there now. We can find money for everyone around the world but we cannot build a school for 587 pupils in an advanced town such as Westport. The building has been there for I do not know how long. Extensions were added in 1968, 1978 and 1984. Further extensions were added in 2010. The girls were in an all-Ireland GAA final a few weeks ago but were beaten. They came second in an all-Ireland but they have no facilities because the prefabs are in the grounds where they used to train. That is not acceptable for the girls or for the pupils. The conditions I saw yesterday are not acceptable. I want to hear the Minister of State's reply.

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