Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy O'Gorman for raising this issue. He has painted a pretty bleak picture of the conditions at Coolmine school, which, as he stated, is quite a large school of 1,000 pupils. It is very concerning and disappointing in this day and age, when we have seen the level of investment in education and in capital works in particular, that a secondary school is experiencing that level of leakage. I can see Deputy O'Gorman is going through his copy of my response. Unfortunately, I do not have an official confirmation in terms of a grant, but hopefully I can give him an update as to where the grant stands.

I can confirm that the Department of Education and Youth is in receipt of a current application from the school for funding under the emergency works scheme for roof works, namely to replace the roof due to water ingress issues. The purpose of the emergency works scheme is to provide funding specifically for unforeseen emergencies or to provide funding to facilitate inclusion and access for pupils with special needs. It does so by ensuring the availability of funding for urgent works to those schools that are in need of resources as a result of an emergency situation. An emergency is deemed to be a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment which is sudden, unforeseen and requires immediate action and, in the case of a school, if not corrected would prevent the school or part thereof from opening. The emergency works scheme operates on the basis of a minimal scope of works required to address the emergency situation. The scheme is intended to remedy an emergency situation and usually provides an interim measure until a permanent solution can be delivered under the summer works scheme, which deals with upgrade works to schools.

The original application proposed a scope of works seeking to replace the entire roof, which would be deemed an upgrade and not a minimal scope of works. Owing to the relatively recent installation of the roof in question, the school was advised to revert to the original design team to remedy the situation in the first instance. The original contractor repaired the three original leaks on foot of a leak detection test carried out in 2022. However, the condition of the roof had deteriorated further since the time of that test and water ingress issues persisted, as the Deputy has outlined.

On 19 March 2025, the Department Education and Youth conducted a site visit to assess the issues at play. The Department advised the school to obtain a new leak detection test. This report was received by the Department in the past two weeks and is undergoing technical review. Once this review has been completed, the emergency works team will engage with the principal of the school in respect of next steps.

As the Deputy may be aware, the Minister recently announced details of the climate action summer works scheme for 2026 onwards. The purpose of this scheme is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works which ideally can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The scheme will operate on a multi-annual basis for a number of categories, which could include the provision or upgrade of roofs. The new scheme opened for applications in early May 2025 and all applications must be received by this Department by 5.30 p.m. on 30 June 2025, when the applications window will close. Full details of the new scheme, including the circular and guidance documents for schools, can be found on the Department's website.

To come back to the immediacy of the Deputy's question and the urgency of the turnaround of the application that is with the Department, the report in terms of the new leak detection test was received in the past two weeks. That is a short enough window of time. I ask that the Deputy give the Department time to assess that report. I understand the urgency of a decision, especially when the leaving certificate is going on. I suppose the Deputy wants some type of affirmation that at least by the time we go back to school in September there will not be that level of leakage. I will stress the urgency of that to the Minister.

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