Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

I listened to the Minister of State's reply intently. I was hoping to get answers to some of the questions. The Cathal Brugha Street site the school is moving into is barely suitable, if even that, for a school community, but it is expected to move in there in September. The contract on that school Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire has been given is to June 2027.

The Minister of State has just told me some complications can be expected in a city-centre site. It is really important that we get the outcome of the conciliation process to understand what exactly went wrong. If these unforeseen complications are happening at a city-centre site, what exactly were they? Was it the Luas line? We understand there are going to be underground issues in the city centre but they were not factored in or considered. I was in the room when the principal raised this with Department officials and asked would it be an issue. I stood in rooms for a year while the school was assured consistently it would be in the building it deserved by 2025. We know that is not a normal school at the moment. It has had to deal with issues very few of us could even comprehend and what it deserved from the State was truth along the way.

There is no space for us to say there are contractual obligations at the same time the Department has told us it is no longer in a contract. We need full information. When is it expected the tender will go out? If the previous builder is going to take a court case, will that delay the tendering? We have a situation where there is a contract for Cathal Brugha Street until 2027. I have a community in the north inner city and surrounds which wants to be able to learn and teach its children through the medium of Irish. That should be a minimum, but what it has had to endure over 23 years is an insult from the State. All the school requires now is truth and while it is in Cathal Brugha Street for it to be flooded with resources so we can be assured these children can have a normal school environment, because they have not had it at all through the last 23 years, affecting generations of children.

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