Dáil debates

Thursday, 17 July 2025

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Schools Building Projects

4:25 am

Photo of Pádraig O'SullivanPádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)

I recognise that the Department is always proactive in my engagements with it. As an educator, though, I have concerns, and the Minister may have touched on something there. Cork ETB has a skill set that many voluntary schools would not have. While all schools are not under the patronage of Cork ETB, it has a specific set of skills. It might be worth considering in future that large-scale projects could use the local expertise in the various ETBs across the country.

I remember teaching in a school a decade ago. The Minister might recall that the Sammon construction company had a number of projects in the country at that time, but it collapsed. Our school was 90% complete at the time, but because of difficulties surrounding that situation, we were left looking out the window of the old school at the new school that was nearly finished. We could not go into it for two and a half years because we could not get certification. That is just one example of some of the pressures and demands placed on boards of management. Whether they are equipped or not to deal with those specific situations, they will require the expertise and leadership of something like the ETB.

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