Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I take the opportunity to wish the best to both Ministers in their roles. There is not a TD on any side the House who does not wish them success because education is hugely important to our children. I want to raise a few local issues. Rathcoole Educate Together National School is currently in a temporary location in Citywest while it waits for a permanent building. It was told this would be a two-year temporary arrangement, but it has now been there for four years. It has now been told it will have to move to a new temporary location in the Newcastle area for the start of the new school term. This location will increase travel time for parents. A school bus has been provided by Department of education from Rathcoole to the current site in Citywest. The Department has indicated it will no longer provide school transport to the new temporary location. The reason for this is that there is another Educate Together school of the same denomination closer to it. In theory this is correct but the reality is that this is a temporary location in Newcastle and the school should be located in Rathcoole. This is a direct consequence of the delay in building a new Educate Together school in Rathcoole. Parents and pupils are paying the price for Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's ineptitude in school provision. I ask the Minister to get the Department to continue to provide a bus for the pupils as a temporary arrangement until the new Rathcoole Educate Together school is built. I will send her a note after this debate.

I also want to talk about my old school, St. Kevin's Community College in Clondalkin. When I first attended the school 37 years ago, it was in temporary accommodation in Lucan. We were using prefabs then which were 15 years old. Now, 37 years later, the school is in a new location on the Fonthill Road. Despite the provision of some accommodation over the years, the school is still using same prefabs that I first used 37 years ago. I know I have aged over the last 37 years, but imagine how much the prefabs have aged in those 37 years. They are over 50 years of age now. It is not fair on pupils or staff. The prefabs are damp and floors are literally unsafe. I walked across them and I could feel the floors moving underneath my feet.

Both the school and I are getting the runaround from the Department. We are getting contradictory responses back from the Department on why these have not been replaced. I was so concerned that I contacted the Health and Safety Authority in March about the floors after I walked across them and I have yet to receive a substantive response.

In 2025 we have a school still using prefabs that are 50 years of age. These prefabs are not the modern build temporary accommodation. These are prefabs that probably had a ten-year shelf life. They were probably five years past their use when I first used them 37 years ago. I ask the Minister to do everything in her power to try to get these prefabs replaced. I will send her a note after this debate.

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