Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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I the need to move on the project for a new building to replace the Kolbe Special School at Block Road, Portlaoise. The school badly needs new accommodation. Good progress has been made in accommodation in the county with many mainstream schools having been built in the last six or seven years. However, the Kolbe centre urgently needs the same. There are 39 pupils with severe and complex intellectual and physical disabilities and very high needs. The staff and board of management are very committed and the parents are also very committed and supportive, but the accommodation is only two solid rooms and eight prefabs which have been added piecemeal over the past 30 years as the school grew and more pupils came in. It started as a very small facility and the problem is that the actual school building has never grown beyond that. All there is is a collection of prefabs, some of which are of very poor quality and are unsuitable as classrooms. There are issues with noise, they are very difficult to heat and some have signs of dampness. I visited the school accompanied by staff and parents and one can see its physical shortcomings. It is a very difficult environment in which the staff must work and try to manage children with special needs. It is very difficult to provide the services for children who have those very complex, considerable needs.

I have made the case for the Kolbe school since 2011 when Deputy Ruairí Quinn was the Minister and I make it again today. I welcome the presence of the Minister for Education and Skills to take this issue.

It is a very difficult environment for these special needs children to learn or progress in. We all know that children need a good environment in which to learn and grow, but children with such complex needs especially need a good environment. One issue with this school is that because of the pupils' special needs, a lot of space is required for their equipment, of which there is a great deal. It is not only a case of providing a standard classroom such as in a mainstream school. There has been some progress. According to a written answer to a Parliamentary Question on 23 March, the project brief is now being finalised. Can the Minister confirm that is the case? The answer stated it was being finalised and that this was part of the preparatory work necessary to facilitate the progression of the project. Have we moved into that stage? The site has been acquired and I understand the necessary transfers have taken place of contracts and so on and things are ready to move on. We want to see if this can be moved to the next stage. It is in the six year construction programme. Can the Minister confirm that funds are available for this and that money will not be an obstacle in moving the project forward? We need to see some definite movement on this.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Stanley for raising this issue with which he is very familiar. Kolbe special school was originally purpose built in 1984. Time has moved on and its needs have dramatically changed, as Deputy Stanley noted. It has 39 pupils, seven teaching posts and a principle and 16 special needs assistants. It is under the patronage of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary's service. It caters to children with severe to profound general learning difficulties.

A new building has been included in the Department's six year capital programme. It is a 2,265 m2 single story building project to include eight classrooms, a general purpose room, library, resource area, woodwork, art room, exercise therapy room and various ancillary spaces. It is envisaged that the new school will increase the capacity from 39 to 48 pupils. Those schedules of accommodation were developed in consultation with the National Council for Special Education.

The acquisition of a 1.433 ha site from the HSE was completed last year and the project brief is currently being finalised. The next step is to go to the architectural drawing stage.

The project was tentatively in the programme for 2018. I hope my Department will be able to move on to get the project to this next phase. I do not have a specific date as to when that project brief will be finalised. I will seek to find out if any more progress has been made on that. The Department clearly recognises the need for this development for children who have very particular needs.

Money is not the constraint. We are making sure that every penny we get is spent and projects are continually being developed. Each one is developed through all the stages as quickly as possible so that we have a good pipeline of projects for the funds, so it is not a question of it being delayed for financial reasons, it is a project that we are keen to progress with. My Department will try to give a roadmap to the school so that as soon as the project brief is finalised it can anticipate the likely timescales of the different stages. However, one can never predict with absolute accuracy because of issues that might arise with the site or planning, for instance. Nevertheless, my Department will endeavour to push it on as quickly as possible.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I can assure him that Laois County Council is very active with school applications and does everything to move them quickly, so I do not foresee problems in the planning process. I welcome that the Department has completed the acquisition of the site. That is very good news as it is often the problem in other areas. However, the reply is disappointing in that it is very similar to the reply in March, in that the project brief is now being finalised. The Minister said he would ask his Department. I want him to be a bit more assertive with his officials. We both know that unless things are moved on and given a political push, particularly from a Minister, that they do not happen very quickly. I plead with the Minister to ask his senior officials to become active on this, to move it on and complete the project brief. That cannot take much longer. It has been sitting there for some time and I say that with respect to the Minister, but it should be ready to be signed off on by now. According to the written answers I have followed on this, it is going on since last December. It should be moved on to the architectural planning stage.

From what the Minister said, I take it that money is not a problem which is excellent to hear. I am delighted. It is a very special case. I acknowledge that progress has been made with mainstream schools. During the noughties when there was loads of money, it was used to rent prefabs and we had them all over the place, but in the last six or seven years a lot of new schools have been built, which is good news, and County Laois has benefitted greatly. I ask the Minister to work with his officials and try to move the project on, to get some definite progress, to finalise the project brief and to sign off on it and move to the architectural planning process.

I assure the Minister that, when it comes to schools and vital infrastructure in Laois, the county council will not delay the planning process by one day.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I assure the Deputy that the Department does drive projects forward. It has completed more than 200 new schools and 175,000 places have been provided in either new or replacement schools. That is a substantial increase on what had been there. There is a pipeline of projects being driven forward all the time within that programme. It is not a question of the Department waiting to be told to move on. It is moving these projects forward as quickly as possible all of the time. However, there can be unforeseen delays. I will seek for the Deputy an update as to what exact work is left to complete in the project brief stage in order that he might have some assurance that it is moving along.