Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)

My question for the Minister for education relates to Presentation Primary School in George's Hill. Before I get to the problems about the school, I want to say that this is a great school in the heart of the north inner city in Dublin 7. It is a DEIS band 1 school. It probably has one of the most diverse populations of all schools in the country and has a significant amount of need, both social and educational. It has a hugely committed staff, who go above and beyond in ways that will never be aired. Three years ago, the Department paid for extensive works to the school, including three new autism classes, a lift, a new rooftop yard, fire doors, a reconfiguration of the top floor and other works. I understand the project manager was KSN, the main contractor was Vision and other contractors were involved.

These works should be a source of pride for the school. Instead, the school has been left with a disgraceful botched job that no one seems to be taking responsibility for. The lack of accountability and oversight by the Department of education is frankly disgraceful. I visited the school a number of weeks ago. My appeal to the Minister of State and to the Minister for education is to visit this school. What I saw was asbestos in the floors throughout the building and broken tiles that occurred during the works and on which children are walking every single day. There is water ingress on the roof yard. The plug points have no earthing. The roof shed is disintegrating. It is on the fourth floor. It is a flat roof and it is unprotected. Think about that in the middle of a storm. The floors were damaged when the fire doors were being installed and the plumbing is simply inadequate. One of the maddest things when you walk through the school is that the walls are only half-painted. The painter went to a certain point and no further.

Some of these situations arose during construction. Some of it was pre-existing. When the contractor went to the project manager three years ago, they were told the Department had not approved expanding the scope of works. Earlier this year, the Department said it should have approved them but, lo and behold, the project manager said the account was closed and the case had to be resubmitted. When the school went back to the original contractors for new quotes, they declined and advised the school to find an alternative elsewhere. When the school went elsewhere for those quotes, every other contractor said they could not get involved in this and that the school would have to go back to the original contractors. You could not make this up.

All the while, this is a school catering to some of the most disadvantaged children in this city. The principal herself has had to climb onto the roof to apply Tec7 to a leaking roof light. She has had to paint a closet room to try to create some space in the school and has had to become an expert in unblocking toilets. This is the reality of this school. There are other schools that are suffering from a severe shortage in terms of the capitation grant and the cost of running the school. More crucially, we have a very real health and safety risk here. In fact, it is an immediate health and safety risk. The Department of education, to my mind, has done nothing to investigate the works that it paid for three years ago, nor has it taken any actions to ensure that the contractors it paid actually did the correct work.

A letter was sent to the Department last week from the board of management of the school. I appreciate that it is budget week and there is lots to be done, but the letter pointed out that there is an immediate health and safety risk. As of this afternoon, there has been no response from the Department of education to that school. If that school were in a better off area with parents with more political capital, I think there would be a speedier response. As of this afternoon, the Department of education has not acknowledged any of these problems. Tonight, I want to hear from the Minister of State what the Department is going to do about it.

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