Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I read the press release issued on Monday by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, which detailed the 28 schools that will undergo major energy and decarbonisation retrofit works this summer under the pathfinder programme. It is welcome news for those schools and I have no doubt they are delighted to be selected. I understand the pilot inventory covered schools in counties Kildare, Meath, Offaly, Wicklow and Wexford, with 40 schools participating in the planning and design stages of the programme. However, there are other schools in every county that would also love to be included in the programme. I hope the Minister of State will review it and consider adding another school. It is a primary school in Drogheda, St. Joseph's CBS. It has two buildings: the green building, which was built in the 1950s, and the red building, which was built in the 1980s. I was contacted by the school's climate action officer, a young teacher who has taken on the additional workload of detailing and attempting to deal with a long list of problems caused by the age of the school and the lack of funding to deal with the problems over many years. The pathfinder programme would deal with many of the issues the school faces and be a real lifeline in bringing it up the standard expected of 21st century learning and working facilities.

The school had an energy audit completed under the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI support scheme for energy audits, SSEA and an energy analysis report was done by another company. Although from reading the reports I see that the findings are concerning, they are also fixable and the possibilities if funding is given are positive. Another report was done by a specialist mould removal company. The list is so long that the school had to engage another company to prioritise the recommendations that they should look at putting into action. The school is doing everything it can and desperately needs financial assistance to implement those recommendations.

I went on a tour of the school, which is populated by happy and engaged children who are a credit to the teachers and principal, but I have to admit I was shocked at the conditions. Water is settling on the flat roof and leading to leaks. Calcium deposits from water ingress can be seen in the fire escape. There is mould and moss caused by the water ingress in addition to the lack of ventilation and heat in the fire escape. There are mould, leaks and dampness in the fourth- and fifth-class classrooms and when I was walking the corridors, there were buckets and basins at various points collecting water that was leaking in. A recent energy audit conducted by Codex Energy on behalf of Dunleer Energy Team found that, at best, the two oil boilers were only working at 65% efficiency. When I saw the boilers I gasped. I could not believe anything that old was still in operation. The school is burning through money trying to keep the entire school warm.

Work is needed on the building fabric, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems and the school needs help to move to renewables as there are no renewable energy systems currently in the school. It is estimated that €1 million would be required to get the school to a building energy rating, BER, of B. It is not a lot of funding for a Government that will have a budget surplus. If there is no prospect of this primary school being included in the pathfinder programme, I would greatly appreciate if the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, could offer assistance and funding to resolve the problems I have listed here this morning. I am happy to forward the energy audits and reports the school has had carried out and pictures of the state of disrepair the school is in. It is up-to-date on its SEAI monitoring and reporting and has an energy team that is actively looking at ways to reduce energy usage. It is participating in the energy in education programme and doing its best to solve these problems. Considering it meets all the benchmarks set out by the Department to be considered for the pathfinder programme, I hope we can collectively assist the school in having the recommendations in the energy audits put into action as soon as possible.

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