Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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The issue of St. Mochta's school will be the subject of what I anticipate will be an extremely large public meeting in Clonsilla tonight. This is now one of the biggest issues in Dublin 15, which, as the Minister knows, is a vast and growing area. I know the Minister is meeting members of the school management and I hope the news is good in anticipation of that meeting. This was a ten-year project. It was promised to the community. The school management agreed to double its school population on the basis that it would get a new school building and several years later, it has been let down.

I raised this in a Topical Issue debate on 12 November 2015. I would like the Minister and other Deputies who were involved to address what was covered in the final paragraph of the reply on that day, which stated:

While it was not possible to include the projects [St. Mochta's and St. Patrick's schools] referred to by the Deputy in the current five-year building programme, I wish to advise the Deputy that the projects will be available for consideration for the new six-year plan...

However, five days later two Ministers at the time, the then Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, and the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, announced on 17 November that St. Mochta's was to be totally rebuilt with the project to proceed to construction in 2016. How, in five days, did it go from not being on the list to being on the list? However, the school board and the local population subsequently heard the school was not on the list at all. Was it ever really on the list for 2016? That is what people at tonight's public meeting will want to know.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Members of the board of management at St. Mochta's school contacted me at the end of August to express their understandable shock and disappointment after the Department of Education and Skills wrote to it to advise that the rebuild of the school was being postponed until next year at the earliest. St. Mochta's is an excellent school with brilliant and dedicated teachers and a very supportive school community of parents and pupils who come from up to 52 different countries as well as the old community from the old village of Clonsilla.

The school has many prefabs on a four-acre site. There is an extension from the year 2000 which the Department declared to be unfit for purpose in 2012. The late Brian Lenihan was involved in the negotiations whereby the school community agreed to more than double the size of the school to take account of the extra demand for school places in this part of Dublin 15. They were promised, before the crash, that the buildings would be attended to and the project, which is still awaited ten years later, would get under way.

As a public representative, I fought hard as did other public representatives in the area to support the school community to ensure the rebuild would commence in 2016. I make no apologies for lobbying continually and constantly, as did other Deputies and public representatives in the area. I cannot understand how the Minister could see any justification for the delay to these building works.

It was agreed in 2015 that the school would proceed. What has now happened is totally unacceptable. When the Labour Party was in government before the general election, major progress was made with the nationwide school building and the replacement of prefabs, notwithstanding the severe economic crisis.

Is the Minister seeking an extra capital allocation to ensure that this and other school projects are built as soon as possible? What is the reason for the delay?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising the matter. I assure them that the building project for St. Mochta's national school was included in the six-year programme announced on 17 November 2015 to progress. It is one of the 67 projects that were announced in 2016 to be part of the 2016 programme. Of course the commencement of a programme does not mean that it will actually be constructed until it is released to tender. That is the process that we have to complete.

As I think the Deputies have outlined, the design team was appointed a considerable time ago - back in 2010 - and the board of management was authorised to commence architectural planning. At that stage, it was not included in the programme announced in 2012 but it was subsequently added in 2015. It is now at an advanced stage of architectural planning, so it is proceeding to complete the planning stage. All statutory approvals have been obtained, tender documents have been prepared and the Department has approved the stage 2B submission.

As Deputy Coppinger recognised, I have met principal, the chairman of the board and the patron.

There are issues that need to be finalised on some of the fee elements of the project, including a further submission by the design team on its request for a fee uplift that would have to approved in accordance with the requirements set out for every project. My Department is working with the team to advance that matter.

On the release of the project to tender, we have a lot of commitments in hand. The previous Minister released projects to tender in April, but I have not been in a position as of yet to release new projects to tender. However, I recognise the importance of this school and I am working with my officials on the timing of existing projects in the programme and their possible release to tender. I am seeking to obtain additional resources to accelerate these projects. I continue to work to try to deliver the St. Mochta's national school project at the earliest possible time. The matter will receive considerable attention from me in the coming months.

I can assure Deputy Joan Burton that there is no diminution of my commitment and that of the Department to the completion of building projects. We will have a considerably larger budget for the coming year than was provided this time last year, which is a recognition that there are pressing needs across the system, on which we are attempting to deliver. There is no doubt that the community feels very let down by the lengthy delay in delivering the project. Some of the reasons for the delay were beyond anyone's control. Nonetheless, I fully understand the frustration of parents whose children are in prefabs, many of which have been in place for a lengthy period. There is understandable frustration among the school staff and parents, but I assure the Deputies that I am working to accelerate the project.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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This is not just about children in prefabs. It is also about the substandard conditions in which children and staff are learning and working. The accommodation is dark, damp and mouldy and completely unsuitable. These are the worst conditions in which I have ever seen children being taught. It is absolutely intolerable. We are told there has been a recovery in the economy. Why can more money not be allocated for the construction of the buildings promised, particularly given that building workers also need jobs? The suspicion in the community is that because of the pressure exerted in electioneering the St. Mochta's national school project and, possibly, other similar projects were included in the list which was widely publicised. There is outright cynicism in that regard, but that is how people feel and it is hard not to feel that way when a new Government enters office and a project suddenly disappears from the list.

On the architectural regulations, the school is very concerned that the new guidelines will be applied retrospectively to projects which have already been approved. That should not be the case. It is important that insurmountable barriers not be put in the way of the project. When is it likely to commence? That is what people want to know and I am still not clear on the matter, despite the Minister's reply.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister's commitment to ensure commencement of this school project as soon as possible. It is possible to have the tendering process finalised before the end of the year. I understand the new guidelines will apply from 8 January. Will the Minister give a commitment that both he and his Department will work with the school which has over a period of ten years sought to bring the project to fruition to ensure the tender process will get over the line before the new complicated guidelines become applicable which it is feared could set the project back for a significant period? Will the Minister, through his departmental officials, assist the school board which has been trying might and main for years, including meeting many us late at night at meetings to advise us on the progress of the project, to achieve this end? They deserve that assistance. There is no point in the Minister engaging in tech-talk with me or others when that is the responsibility of his officials. Has he met the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to seek additional money for the capital programme in order that this project can proceed?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I assure Deputy Ruth Coppinger that, whatever the suspicions of the community are, that is not the position. We have sought to accelerate the project as quickly as possible. The release to tender occurs when projects reach a certain point. This project had not yet reached that stage when the previous Minister released projects to tender last April. I will be working very hard to bring it to the point where it can be released. As I said, there are obligations on the design team that have to be met before that point is reached.

Both Deputies have referred to the new tendering process. Deputy Joan Burton is correct that the latest date by which tenders must be submitted such that the new tendering process will not apply is 8 January 2017. I reassure Deputy Ruth Coppinger that it is not a case of me introducing retrospection. It is something that has been well known by everyone in the business for a long time. It is a new process that will apply from 8 January 2017.

I have met the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to discuss the provision of additional money for building projects. I regard this project as a priority for all the reasons outlined by the Deputies; the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and Deputy Lisa Chambers. I will be working to achieve a satisfactory outcome for the parents and children involved.