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

On 22 May, the 40 or so staff of the Newpark Academy of Music, in which there are approximately 600 students, were informed in a shock and unexpected notification that the school was to close. Those staff will lose their jobs and those 600 music students will no longer have a school. The Newpark Academy of Music has been operating for 45 years serving the community and doing outreach programmes. It is located on the Newpark Comprehensive School grounds. It serves the school community, but also people beyond the school community. It is a registered not-for-profit charity. The Minister of State can simply imagine the shock for students, their families and the staff over losing their jobs and their school. Shockingly, they were told this was going to happen at a week's notice. They were told on 22 May that the school and their jobs would be gone on 29 May. This is an absolutely unbelievable and inexplicable decision made by the board.

The only explanation that has been given is something to do with trading and financial conditions, although there is no indication that there is any financial difficulty with the school, or certainly no explanation to that effect has been given to anybody.

The fact that the workers have only been given one week's notice seems to be, without question, a breach of the employment Act because there is supposed to be a 30-day consultation period if more than ten workers are let go in a liquidation. One of the board members is the principal of Newpark school who, to date, has not engaged in any meaningful communication with the staff to give any explanation as to why any of this has happened.

I should say that a number of the staff and former pupils are in the Gallery. Possibly as a result of my raising the issue with the Taoiseach yesterday, when I flagged that this debate would be happening today, staff received a notification indicating there would be a meeting at 8 p.m. this evening, which is the same time as the end-of-year concert. That is quite extraordinary. You would have to think games of a not-nice kind are being played with a shocked and devastated staff.

I am asking, as I asked the Taoiseach yesterday, for urgent intervention from the Government. I remind the Government that it has a very explicit commitment to providing access to music, art and culture in the education system, in schools and for young people. I do not have time to quote the programme for Government extensively, but it refers to expanding "Creative Schools, ensuring that every child in Ireland has access to tuition ... in art, music, drama" and ensuring "that it continues beyond the life of Creative Ireland and will work with the Department of Education to achieve this", etc. The Departments of Education, arts and enterprise, and possibly the Department of local government, all have a stake in this. I am asking for an urgent cross-departmental intervention to find out what is going on and to stop this closure. We are supposed to be expanding access to the arts, music and so on for young people in education. The idea that this closure would go ahead, these people would lose their jobs and the 600 students would lose their music school is unacceptable. I asking for urgent Government intervention on this.

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