Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was. Having visited it recently, I was genuinely shocked to find that many of its fixtures and fittings were in place when I was a pupil. The school's condition is unlike that of my secondary school, which has been completely transformed. The windows are held together with plywood and there are large gaps in them. There is woodworm in old parquet floors, which are coming apart, and the hall is in really poor condition. The surface of the yard is incredibly uneven. The building has no accessibility elements at all. There are no toilets in the classrooms, so children have to travel to the far end of the building. The school is now mixed but was originally a boys' school, which means that it had to be retrofitted. There is no lift for children with access issues. Hot meals provided under the fantastic new hot school meals programme have to be brought upstairs, as does any equipment required.

All of this is despite the really fantastic effort of the parents and staff to make the school top class. The school is top class and has a great atmosphere. There is a 16-classroom extension due and it is included in the accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering, ADAPT, programme. I am really frustrated by how slow the process is. It was due to proceed to design phase. We have had to do some work, on foot of the good work of Minister of State Rabbitte, to put in a prefabricated unit for special educational needs. We have two other prefabricated units on site but need to have a new school building.

I get a little confused by the process of the school building unit. There is not much transparency in how things move from one stage to another. We need the Department of Education and Minister to ensure the unit is delivered. I ask that the Government do everything it can to ensure this.

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