Dáil debates

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Topical Issue Debate

School Accommodation Provision

2:35 pm

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of North Wicklow Educate Together secondary school, which is based in Bray. It is a voluntary secondary school under the patronage of Educate Together. That patronage was awarded in 2015.

The school is in temporary accommodation in the old Presentation College in Bray and that lease is due to expire on 30 April next year. The Minister made an announcement last year that arrangements had been put in place. They had identified a site in Bray town centre and that announcement was made last June.

Since that time, no information has come from the Department. North Wicklow Educate Together is completely in the dark. Some concerns have been raised regarding the site identified on the site of Bray Institute of Further Education in the town centre. That site is controlled by Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board. There have been some controversies regarding the former chief executive officer of the education and training board and these are being investigated. Unfortunately, it appears that North Wicklow Educate Together is somehow being implicated in or held up by these investigations.

A crisis is looming. There are 200 students in a school that could not be described as being fit for purpose. It started enrolling in September 2016 and is due to enrol its third year in September when there will be 200 pupils in the current premises. The private lease on the building will expire in April 2019 and the school principal and the parents and future parents of students of the school do not know where the school will be accommodated after that time.

I and other Deputies representing Wicklow have made numerous approaches to the Minister. The five Wicklow Deputies sent a joint letter to him and I have spoken to him on numerous occasions but no information has been forthcoming on the site that has been identified. Some concern has been raised by Bray Institute of Further Education, which believes it was not consulted in the process of identifying the site. We are now caught in a vacuum and this is not being helped by the lack of information from the Minister, who has ultimate responsibility, or his Department. Representatives of North Wicklow Educate Together met officials from the Department last week on foot of a meeting that had taken place the previous day with, I understand, the new CEO of the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board. No information was given to Educate Together on what had been discussed with the CEO of the education and training board.

We have a principal, 200 pupils and their parents who do not know where their school will be in April next year. It is unfortunate that the Minister is not in the Chamber to provide some clarity or a timeframe on when the parents, children and staff of the school can expect to get into their new school, wherever it is located. I hope the Minister of State will be able to outline some of the timeframes and give clear information

2:45 pm

Photo of John Paul PhelanJohn Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brady. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, who is not available as he is before the Seanad to take Committee Stage of the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to clarify the current position regarding the accommodation needs of North Wicklow Educate Together post-primary school. As the Deputy is aware, a major capital project for the provision of permanent accommodation for North Wicklow Educate Together to cater for a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils is being addressed through the Department's six-year construction programme. The Department's capital programme continues to address the challenge posed by a rapidly increasing school population, including in areas such as County Wicklow. In addition to major school projects, the capital programme also provides for devolved funding for additional classrooms for schools where an immediate enrolment need has been identified or an additional teacher has been appointed.

The Action Plan for Education sets out the Government's ambitions for the education system, including the commitment contained in the programme for Government towards the prioritisation of school educational infrastructure. Following the capital review, additional capital funding of €332 million will be available to the schools sector, primarily from 2019 onwards, boosting investment in our primary and post-primary school infrastructure. This significant investment reflects the priority the Government has placed on education and delivering on our ambition to deliver a fair society and strong economy.

It is planned that in the period to 2021, more than 350 announced large-scale projects, including a major project for North Wicklow Educate Together, will be advanced under the Department's construction programme. An option for the location of a permanent site for North Wicklow Educate Together post-primary school is being finalised. The school was established in 2016. As an interim measure and with the assistance of the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board, it was housed in a property leased by the ETB at the old presentation building at Putland Road in Bray, which the Deputy mentioned. The school opened with an enrolment of 36 pupils and numbers are growing incrementally, with an enrolment of 119 pupils in 2017. The Department is aware that the existing lease on the Putland Road building is due to expire in May 2019. Officials from the Department are continuing to liaise with Kildare and Wicklow ETB to ensure North Wicklow Educate Together has adequate accommodation to cater for its growing pupil numbers from September 2019 onwards.

I want to clarify for the Deputy that the Department is continuing to prioritise this matter and will liaise with the patron of North Wicklow Educate Together when a further update is available. As I indicated, the Department is liaising with the Kildare and Wicklow ETB in the context of a permanent school building for North Wicklow Educate Together and will liaise further with the Educate Together patron in this regard.

I again thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline the position to the House. I assure him that the Department is concerned to ensure that both the interim and long-term accommodation needs of North Wicklow Educate Together post-primary school will be provided for.

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the response. While I do not wish to shoot the messenger, it did not provide any clarity whatever. We are facing a crisis. In April next year, up to 200 children will not have a premises in which to be educated. A site has been identified in Bray, about which questions have arisen. I am not sure how long the process will take or what is happening. According to the Minister of State, an option for the location of a permanent site for North Wicklow Educate Together post-primary school "is being finalised". An announcement was made last year that a site had been identified. The school is not under the patronage of the Kildare Wicklow Education and Training Board, yet the ETB seems to have more information than Educate Together, which is bizarre to say the least.

Information is key, as is the fact that the school is well aware that some sort of temporary accommodation will need to be provided until the new school is constructed. Educate Together is conscious and aware of that requirement but it does not want to move the school into temporary accommodation on a site somewhere in north Wicklow. We do not know where the school will be located. Under an exhaustive process, three sites were initially identified, two of which were quickly ruled out as being totally inaccessible, leaving only the site we are discussing. The school is conscious that interim arrangements will be required. It wants prefabricated buildings erected on the site on which the school will be permanently based from April 2019 onwards, wherever that site will be. Some form of temporary accommodation must be provided on the site on which the purpose built school will be located.

What we need are clear timeframes and that is what is lacking in the Minister of State's nonsensical and disappointing statement. Educate Together needs answers, not the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board because the former and not the ETB is the patron. The principal, the school, the pupils and the people of north Wicklow, including me, need answers.

Photo of John Paul PhelanJohn Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As outlined in the response, the Minister will liaise with the patron of North Wicklow Educate Together when a further update is available. As regards the issue being finalised, I have not been give specific timeframes but the matter is a priority for Government. Nobody wants a scenario to arise where an active school does not have accommodation. There is no prospect of 200 students being homeless next May, as the Deputy suggested. Short-term measures are needed until the new school is built, after which a permanent home must be provided. The Minister made clear in the statement I read out that he will liaise with the patron of North Wicklow Educate Together to that effect.