Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I understand Deputy Ó Laoghaire will give way to his constituency colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, after three minutes.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The southern part of metropolitan Cork has experienced significant growth in population. Thar timpeall ar an Dúglas agus i mBaile an Róistigh tá an pobal thart ar 25,000 duine agus i gCarraigh Uí Leighin tá an pobal tar éis méadú ó 12,000 go 16,000 ó bhí 2006 ann. Consequently, and rightly, new schools have been planned for these areas, which I welcome. However, three schools face significant difficulties due to the arrangements made or, more specifically, not made. First, I will touch on the challenges facing Gaelcholáiste and Gaelscoil Carrig Uí Leighin. The school was opened in temporary accommodation in September 2015 following a lengthy campaign by parents. A site was secured in 2010 with a view to accommodating the Gaelcholáiste, a new site for the Gaelscoil and a special school. An Irish Examinerarticle from 2015 states that the Department expected the building to be ready by September 2016 but not a block has been laid. The Department is currently saying that it will be ready for December 2019, nine years on from purchase of the site. The process has been deeply frustrating for all involved, the cost appears to have increased and the timescales keep moving, causing serious difficulties.

The Gaelscoil expanded to three streams on the strength of a belief that the campus would be available and there are now 600 children on the site of a building initially developed for 200. The situation is farcical and very unfair on the schools involved and it will present a health and safety issue for the Gaelscoil. A permanent home has been identified for the Educate Together secondary school but the school is currently a tenant at Nagle community school. An interim building was to be developed in the vicinity for September 2017 but it has since become clear that there was not the necessary time to construct a temporary building. The school is soon to close for the year. It is operating out of two classrooms so can the Minister assure the school that, in the interim, adequate space will exist in Nagle community school for Educate Together to function adequately? Can the Minister give a timeline for the delivery of quality temporary accommodation for the Educate Together secondary school?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for giving me some time on this important issue. We are looking clarity on the campus development at Ballinrea, Carrigaline. I received a reply to a parliamentary question on 11 May which was very non-committal and evasive. I sought a timeframe for the development of the school, details of when it would go to tender and construction and when it would be occupied. I also sought an assurance that the capital funding was in place.

The campus is to have three schools and the current Gaelscoil in Carrigaline is bursting at the seams having become a three-stream school on the encouragement of the Department. The Gaelcholáiste is a new school and parents who are considering their child there want certainty that the new school building in Ballinrea will be ready in the near future. The Sonas special junior school for children on the autism spectrum has expanded across two sites in Carrigaline, which is far from ideal. Is the Department fully committed to this project and when is it going to go ahead to tender and construction? A reply from the Minister last November indicated that the Department was considering a fee schedule from the design team but a reply of the past two weeks stated that only a part of the fee schedule had been approved. That concerns me deeply. We need certainty for the three schools in question and the wider community they serve.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on the Educate Together secondary school and Gaelcholáiste Carrig Uí Leighin. As the Deputy is probably aware, Cork Educate Together secondary school was established in 2016. It is currently operating from part of Nagle community college, Mahon, Blackrock, County Cork. An extension of this arrangement was recently agreed with the school authority pending the delivery of alternative temporary accommodation which is being arranged by the school's patron body. I want to take the opportunity to put on record my Department’s appreciation of the assistance of Nagle community college for facilitating this arrangement, which represents an excellent example of co-operation by the education partners in Cork.

In general, all new schools commence operation in temporary accommodation with a view to permanent accommodation being provided for them by my Department as quickly as possible. Officials in my Department have engaged with officials in Cork County Council under the memorandum of understanding for the acquisition of school sites with a view to identifying and acquiring a suitable site to accommodate Cork Educate Together secondary school. A number of site options were identified and a comprehensive technical assessment of feasibility was undertaken in respect of each option. A suitable site on the Old Carrigaline Road, adjacent to Douglas Garda station, has been identified and the acquisition process for this is at an advanced stage.

Departmental officials continue to work with Cork County Council in the context of the draft Ballincollig-Carrigaline local area plan with regard to the potential development of the site in question. Subject to the satisfactory completion of the conveyancing process and the views of the local authority, this site acquisition is being progressed with the intention of serving as the permanent location for Cork Educate Together secondary school. Development of the site will also be subject to planning permission being obtained. With regard to Gaelcholáiste Carrig Uí Leighin the Deputy will probably be aware that the intention is provide a new building for this school as part of multi-million euro school campus arrangement at Ardnacloghy in Carrigaline. Apart from a new state-of-the-art building for Gaelcholáiste Carrig Uí Leighin, the project also comprises new buildings for the local Gaelscoil and for a special school. The project has been devolved for delivery to the Cork education and training board. While earlier issues with planning permission have caused delay with this project, these have now been resolved and planning permission has been granted so that the project can now move ahead to the next stage.

I am pleased to be able to tell the Deputy that the education and training board's design team is currently preparing tender documents to pre-qualify contractors for the project. When the pre-qualification process has been completed, this positions the project to move to the tender process for construction. However, the existing contractual commitments for 2017 now fully account for the funding which was allocated for 2017 and carry a significant contractual commitment into 2018. This means that the Department must carefully manage the flow of additional projects to tender and construction stages for 2018. My Department will consider a request from Cork Education and Training Board for approval to proceed to tender for the full campus project when the pre-qualification process outlined has been completed. Our aim will be to progress all projects as quickly as possible, as soon as funding becomes available. In the meantime, Gaelcholáiste Carrig Uí Leighin is being accommodated temporarily in premises locally.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I am not terribly reassured by that. The site for the Gaelcholáiste was secured in 2010 and we are now in May 2017. The Department is entirely capable of delivering a building before December 2019 on a site that has already been purchased. The potential of the school is being held back and it is not good enough to say it has to go to the back of the queue. The desire to build this school was in the system far in advance of many of the other schools which are currently funded. The Department has to progress this sooner and it will create a serious difficulty for the Gaelscoil and the Gaelcholáiste if it is not delivered. It can be done but the cost and the timescales seem to be increasing all the time, which is not acceptable.

I note the point about the Educate Together secondary school. To an extent, this is a new development.

However, it is unfair on Nagle community school that it is dealing with the consequences of the Department's failures. There is no reference to temporary accommodation being provided until the permanent site is developed. It is quite worrying that the Department's attitude is that Nagle community school will be the location for the Educate Together secondary school until the permanent site is developed. Can the Minister clarify if that is the case? If so, that is an unacceptable situation in the context of needing space for resource teaching, for an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit which it has been operating and various other items.

I will share the remainder of my time with Deputy Michael McGrath.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I support everything that Deputy Ó Laoghaire has said in regard to the Cork Educate Together secondary school. There is an urgent need for clarity in regard to the temporary accommodation arrangements for the 2017-18 school year. There has been a great deal of messing in regard to that issue. There is still no clarity. I welcome that the site for the permanent building is being bought but I ask the Minister to focus on having proper arrangements in place for the temporary facility for next year.

I am concerned by the Minister's response regarding the campus development in Carrigaline. He spoke of contractual commitments spilling over into 2018. We have been told that the worst-case scenario is that the campus will be ready by the end of 2019. I question that. I worry about that. Even if it is delivered by then, that will create serious communities for those three school communities. We need greater clarity, the support of Government and that there be no undue delay in this project getting to tender and construction and getting on site as quickly as possible.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The response that I have received, which I presume is accurate, states that an extension of the arrangement at the Nagle community college was recently agreed with the school authority pending the delivery of alternative temporary accommodation, which is being arranged by the school's patron body. It therefore appears that the present situation is there is an extension of the arrangement at Nagle community college. It is not satisfactory that the process takes such a long time but there appear to have been planning difficulties. However, I am unaware of the backdrop to those difficulties or why they delayed the obtaining of planning permission on the site. I will seek clarification for Deputies Ó Laoghaire and Michael McGrath in regard to the temporary accommodation in order to clarify for them how the arrangements will work.

Deputy McGrath raised the wider issue of the pace of school building programmes and the Department meeting targets in that regard. Each year, the Department increases the number of places provided for. This year, the Department will provide 22,000. We must ensure, however, that we are in a position to spend every penny we get. There are a large number of major projects proceeding at all times. Some get held up. At any point in the supply chain we must ensure that we spend every penny made available to me in this regard. Having a continuous supply of projects that are shovel-ready is very important to ensure that the available capital budget in this area is fully exploited.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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If that is the case, the Minister should ensure that this particular project is kept moving.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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There are always projects and we must ensure that this situation continues. We will attempt to accommodate this project as quickly as possible. We have given pre-clearance to the approval of the contractors and it is hoped that we will soon be in a position to allow it go to the next stage.