Dáil debates
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Adjournment Debate
Schools Building Projects.
10:00 pm
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise this matter. The Minister is probably sick of hearing of Laytown at this stage, but I have no option but to try to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion. It is ten years since it was accepted that a new school was needed in Laytown. I was not a councillor prior to being elected to this House and my introduction to politics was a promise by the Taoiseach, Deputy Mary Wallace and the then election candidate of the announcement of a new school for Laytown three years ago.
August 2006 was a defining moment when I, as a public representative, the Minister of State, Deputy Wallace and other public representatives in the area were called to a meeting at which it was pointed out that many children did not have the facility of a school to attend. The Department's answer to that issue and the way forward pointed out by the then Minister of State, Deputy Wallace, was that four year olds in the area should be brought to a school, put on a school bus and brought to a weigh room for jockeys in Bellewstown and that this facility would do rightly. That is where this process started. The parents of the children said "No" to that proposal at that meeting. They said there was no way they would send their children aged four on a school bus to be transported eight to ten miles on what is one of the worst roads in County Meath to that facility.
People were asked to put their political affiliations to one side. I and Thomas Byrne, then an election candidate — I do not know if he was announced as a candidate at that time — took on the issue of dealing with the objections in regard to the school. Nobody else came forward to do it. I knew it was a political minefield for me but I had a right to do it on behalf of the people. We were asked to do it, but we got only so far.
To cut a long story short, when everybody concerned had gone their separate ways, fourth and fifth class pupils were being accommodated in a gym in the other school in the area and the children starting school did not have the facility of a school to attend. Some people were brought to a meeting held in Buswells Hotel on 29 March. The meeting was attended by some of the parents, a teacher in the school, an election candidate, a local councillor, the Minister and a Department official. The Minister told those people that an application for planning permission for a new school would be submitted in May. She said that the contracts would be issued and gave a commitment that at the end of September next year a new school would be opened. I did not know anything about that at the time, but I was happy about that development. I knew that pursuing this issue was of no political benefit to me, but that did not matter because I believed it was a job worth doing. People worked together to pursue it. However, as of today no further progress has been made.
We have heard of announcement following announcement in recent weeks only to discover that planning permission for the new school has not even been submitted. We are not sure if the site has even been acquired. What annoys me more than anything else is that those people were invited to a meeting in Dublin and told that the application for planning permission would be submitted at the end of May, but that represented a deceit. The people were misled on that occasion. I am not allowed nor do I like to use the word that describes what happened in the Chamber. It was unacceptable to me as a politician for the Minister to tell those people that a planning permission application would be submitted for the school and that a new school would be opened at the end of September .
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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No application for planning permission was submitted. The children are being accommodated in a school for which €60,000 per month is being paid in rent, but the 90 children there do not have an adequate play area and another 150 children will be enrolled next September. Then we wonder why there are problems such as bullying and drugs in our schools.
The most important issue is young people's education. Those people should not have been brought to a meeting in Buswells at 12 o'clock on 29 March and given that information. People in this country are the easiest in the world to get on with if they know what is happening. What happened on that occasion is the reason people do not have respect for politicians. Why were people given that information on 29 March when it was known that was not the case? As an ordinary person and a politician, I find it unacceptable that a member of Government should do that. If that is the Government's only way of getting on, we deserve what we get. Every child in the country has been misled. We have continued to facilitate building but we have provided nothing for the children and now we cannot control the situation. I have learned that one does not believe what one hears in here.
Why were the people of Laytown and Bettystown and the teachers brought a meeting in Buswells Hotel on 29 March and told that an application for planning permission was being submitted when the Department did not even own the site and the plans for the school were not even drawn up? If that is how much power means to those in Government, they are welcome to it.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to have this opportunity to outline the position regarding the new primary school in Laytown, County Meath. The Department has already provided a 16-classroom facility to meet the immediate accommodation requirements in Laytown. The Deputy seems to have overlooked that fact and that considerable publicity was given in September to the fact that the children were happy in their new facility, that the parents were delighted with the facility that had been provided and that it had been provided on time and on target.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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That has nothing to do with what I am talking about. What I am talking about is what happened——
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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The Deputy must resume his seat.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The new 24-classroom school building will be provided by my Department under a design and build contract.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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What we were told was rubbish.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The procurement process for this project is now nearing completion and it is expected that the contract will be awarded very soon.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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We are being told more rubbish here.
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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The Deputy must resume his seat.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry the Deputy has missed part of the answer.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I have not missed any answer.
11:00 pm
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As part of the tender competition, the initial design and layout for the school has already been done and some pre-planning discussions have taken place with Meath County Council in order to help ensure that it meets their requirements.
Following the placing of the design and build contract, the first task for the successful contractor will be to submit the application for planning permission for the new school. Given the preparatory work already done, it is expected that the application for planning permission can be done within a matter of weeks following the appointment. I assure the Deputy that the Department is committed to commencing construction of the new school as soon as possible following receipt of planning permission. It is important that the application goes through as smooth a process as possible, given previous history.
Last week, I outlined details of how €594 million is to be spent on school building projects in the coming year. The majority of this funding will be targeted at primary level and will enable my Department to continue the process of providing new school places and modernising existing facilities in schools throughout the country, with a particular emphasis on meeting the new and emerging needs in developing areas such as Laytown. Since 1997 a total of €3.6 billion has been invested in school buildings and this has delivered over 9,300 school building projects. This further investment of €594 million will build on these achievements and will focus in particular on the provision of school accommodation in areas where the population is growing at a rapid rate.
The NDP investment of over €4.5 billion will enable my Department to continue to transform the standard of school facilities throughout the country. I assure the Deputy that we are committed to providing suitable high quality accommodation for Laytown at the earliest possible date. I said as much earlier, but the Deputy did not appear to be listening.
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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The Deputy must resume his seat.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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If that is all the Minister can offer the people of Laytown, so be it. It is a poor day for this country when the Minister can bring people here on 29 March and tell them——
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Deputy, the Chair is on its feet.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It is a poor day when the Minister sneers at the people of Laytown.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I did not sneer at them. There is no facility for a Member to speak again on the Adjournment.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should tell them the truth.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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They got a lovely facility in September.
Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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The matter I wish to raise is St. Mary's and St. Gerard's national school. This school is bursting at the seams and has now reached a critical stage in terms of the number of pupils. I ask the Minister to honour a commitment she made before the last general election and to ensure that the children attending the school are treated fairly.
This school provides for the growing population of Enniskerry and its catchment area, some of which is within the Minister's constituency. Despite that fact, the school has not been given the go ahead to develop new capacity and to become a 16-classroom school. This issue has been ongoing for many years. Indeed, while Enniskerry stagnated on the waiting list, other schools nearby got the green light. When the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, came under pressure during the general election campaign about her neglect of the school building programme, she ensured a letter was sent from the Department to the chairperson of the board of management stating clearly that the accommodation will provide for the staffing and building of 16 mainstream classrooms. The letter also stated that the school planning section would advise the technical staff to visit the school as soon as possible to verify the necessary additional accommodation required.
The letter was warmly welcomed. The election was held but, shamefully, since the letter was sent on 10 May nothing has been heard from the Department about the technical staff that were due to visit. This is unacceptable. The school's situation is becoming desperate. The parents and staff need to know when the project will begin and when the commitment made in writing by the Minister to the board of management will be honoured.
Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The letter of 10 May from an official in the planning section in the Department of Education and Science only gave false hope after many years of campaigning for additional classrooms. The school had been approved for a smaller extension in 2001 but was then told that it required, and would be given, 16 mainstream classrooms as well as ancillary accommodation. However, the letter neglected to state what band status the school had been given.
On 8 November, I received a letter from the school principal. She was under the impression that the school had been assigned category one or band one status. In response to a parliamentary question from me on 4 December, the Minister replied that applications for large-scale capital funding projects are assessed against published prioritisation criteria and, as such, the school had been assigned band two status. The Minister is shaking her head but that was in the reply I received on 4 December. The letter sent on 10 May was disingenuous, to say the least. The timing speaks for itself. It was sent to give people false hope, after years of campaigning, during a general election campaign and to buy votes. There is no other way to describe it.
I have put down a parliamentary question seeking the details of the published prioritisation criteria. I am seeking an explanation for how Enniskerry can only be assigned category two status, given its demographics, location and the fact that it is under serious pressure from surrounding areas as the other local schools are also full. I hope I will get as direct a response as the one I received on 4 December, which categorically states that the school has band two status, not band one. How was the school principal under the impression that the school had category one status? The school's projections are that there will be two extra classrooms of enrolments each year but it is the same size as it was 20 years ago. It was approved for a smaller extension six years ago but nothing has happened.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputies stated, an application for an extension to St. Mary's and St. Gerard's national school was received. When the original application was made, the extension would have been too small for the school's needs. Subsequently, an assessment was made of the long-term needs of the school and it was determined, and agreed with the school authority, that the school should be extended to a 16 mainstream classroom school.
I wish to confirm to the Deputy that the school has a band one rating. There must have been a mistake in the reply to the parliamentary question. The letter sent to the board of management was correct.
Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Was the reply to the parliamentary question wrong?
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Band one is the correct status. The band one rating is the highest rating and that was indicated to the principal in November.
Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Yes, but the reply of 4 December states otherwise.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The letter to the principal is correct. I confirm that for the Deputy. The school has band one status. It is located in a rapidly developing area. Band one status is the highest rating a school can get within the building programme. Approximately €600 million will be available for the school building programme next year and the school's band one status gives it a very high priority. Progression of the project will take place in the context of the next multi-annual building programme.
Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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When will the technical staff visit the school, as the Minister promised?
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I will ask the technical staff. It has band one status.
Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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May I ask the Minister a question?
Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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No. The Deputy who raised the previous matter wished to ask a question and was prevented from doing so.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I will clarify the reply to the parliamentary question.