Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for Education. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter as it gives me, on behalf of the Minister for Education, the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the current position regarding the major school building project for Holy Trinity National School in Westport, County Mayo.

The major building project for Holy Trinity is to provide a new four-class primary school with one class special education needs base and involves the renovation and extension of an existing former school building. This would also provide a general purpose room, a library and resource area, a principal’s office, a general office and other ancillary accommodation. The project to which the Deputy referred has been devolved for delivery to Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board and it appointed a design team to progress the project through the necessary architectural stages of design, statutory approvals, procurement and construction. As the Deputy may be aware, the project to develop the Minister-owned former Scoil Phádraig building at Altamount Street for Holy Trinity National School was approved at stage 1 following a recent stage meeting.

While Holy Trinity National School’s project progresses through its various stages, the Department has identified the former Scoil Phádraig building as a solution for urgent temporary accommodation needs for Sacred Heart School Westport. As the Deputy may be aware, a project to provide a new replacement school building for Sacred Heart School in Westport is planned. Modular accommodation has already been provided on the Sacred Heart School site to facilitate the vacation of the parts of the school that were in the poorest condition. However, the condition of the remaining accommodation is such that there is a requirement to vacate the majority of this to support a safe working environment for the staff and students in that school. The Department is following through on this requirement as a matter of urgency. After significant work to identify and consider all potential options, the use of the former Scoil Phádraig building was identified as the only viable solution to meet this urgent accommodation need in the timeline required.

The Department is conscious that the use of the former Scoil Phádraig building as an interim solution for Sacred Heart School has raised some concerns on the part of the Holy Trinity National School community. In that context, the Department has had productive engagement with the school’s patron, the Bishop of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe. The Department officials have confirmed to the patron that there is a continued commitment to the delivery of the Holy Trinity National School project and set out some assurances and proposals of how the Department can support Holy Trinity National School in the interim as well as enhancing the overall outcome for the school in the medium term. As a first assurance, given the importance of the delivery of the Sacred Heart School project, which includes accommodation for Westport ETNS, for the affected school communities, including Holy Trinity National School, the project for Sacred Heart School has been slotted into one of the Department’s delivery programmes that has existing project management supports to support and facilitate project delivery. This approach will significantly aid the timeline for the Sacred Heart School project. The brief for the project has been finalised and it will commence stage 1 in the coming weeks. In effect, this means that the Sacred Heart School project is just one stage behind the Holy Trinity National School project.

The Department has invited all relevant patrons to join an oversight group that will monitor progress on the projects for Holy Trinity National School, Sacred Heart School and Westport ETNS. Given the inter-relationship between these projects, the Department will be making arrangements for the project manager and the design teams for both projects to liaise and work closely together to ensure both projects get progressed as quickly as possible through the various stages of design, tender and construction.

While the Sacred Heart School project is of significant scale, as part of good co-ordination between both projects, the Department is proposing a phased construction that would prioritise the finalisation and vacation of the Scoil Phádraig building.

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