Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am raising the issue, with Deputy Jack Chambers, of what has been happening, or rather not happening, in respect of Pelletstown Educate Together national school.

The parents, children and staff are undergoing trials and tribulations because the Government has failed, in its third year in office, to build the permanent school. There was a threat that the school would be moved to different temporary accommodation yet again. In the context of the recent elections, that threat was removed some days ago. Obviously, the parents are relieved. However, they do not intend to allow their children to be bussed between locations or allocated further temporary accommodation. The school is now in its fourth year of existence. A temporary site has been identified. The resolution arrived at is that which Deputy Jack Chambers and I suggested, namely, to ensure the developers who owned the site would extend the lease into the middle of next year. That has now been confirmed. However, I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, to confirm that the school will not be asked to move premises again, either in whole or in part, until such time as the permanent school building has been provided. I ask him to confirm the stage that arrangements with Dublin City Council regarding the planning for permanent school site have reached. When can we expect to see diggers on site, as we have now been promised numerous times, to commence the permanent accommodation? The school does not need any further temporary moves, it needs a permanent home to carry on the work of educating the children by the dedicated staff and the work of the dedicated parents of the school community which is a vibrant place for learning.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This is an example of very poor departmental planning. We have had the dislocation of students and the undermining of their accommodation repeatedly over a period of months. A new school in a new community should be discussing the curriculum and community development. However, the children attending this school have had to write to their local representatives about remaining at the existing site and preventing themselves being bussed from one place to another.

In September 2015, the school started out in a bunker or basement with no natural light. Planning delays in 2017 meant pupils had to be bussed to different locations. In February 2019, we had an accommodation crisis and fears that the school could not properly open for incoming children in September 2019. Again, there were more delays and poor forward planning from the Department. Recently, and despite a permanent build occurring but with no diggers on site, as Deputy Burton stated, the potential dislocation of pupils in the early part of next year arose again. What is the forward-planning unit of the Department of Education and Skills doing? Why is it allowing a cliff-edge crisis to arise again and again in respect of this school? Pelletstown and the wider Royal Canal and Rathborne area is a new community where there is excellent parental involvement. The children and teachers have great pride in their school but they are having to deal with this cliff-edge approach by the Department whereby potential dislocation arises on an ongoing basis. I ask the Minister of State to provide an update on the current situation. Will there be absolute certainty regarding the accommodation of pupils next year in order that there is a smooth transition from the temporary site to the permanent site? What is the Department doing by way of forward planning to address this ongoing cliff-edge approach which is not fit for purpose in the context of the budgetary allocations it is providing?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I speak on behalf of the children, parents and staff of the school. Can the Minister of State commit on the floor of the Dáil to the statement in his script to the effect that, provided that no issues arise, it is envisaged that the permanent accommodation will be completed in September 2020? Will he commit further that if there is any slippage in relation to that date, the Department will ensure no further temporary movements are required of the school? The school has been in a situation of uncertainty for four years, which is a long time in the start-up life of a school and in the life of a child attending primary school. We want to ensure the uncertainty and fear created by the basement experience and the busing experience will not recur. We assume the owners of the site are its developers. They are probably making many millions of euro from the construction of houses and apartments there. I cannot see why the Department is not exercising its role in education by providing schools in areas in which large-scale residential development has taken place. I ask the Minister of State to commit, therefore, that there will be no further disruption to the school until it receives the permanent building in September 2020, as has just been promised.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Clarity is needed around this given the fact that, notwithstanding the provision by the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, of a similar level of certainty two months ago, we are raising the issue on the floor of the Dáil again today. While there is a commitment on the part of the developer to provide the site to the school until summer 2020, what will happen if there is further slippage and delay in the tendering process, design works or any of the other aspects of the development of the permanent school? Such delays have occurred in respect of other school development sites. Can the Minister of State say with absolute certainty that there will be no further dislocation for children, teachers, parents and the broader school community? They have already had to deal with the developer at Rathborne-Royal Canal leaving a lot of vacant sites in the area in an unsightly state.

The least that can occur is that the Department secures the future site trajectory until the permanent school opens. That is what the parents want and that is what the school community wants. We need that commitment from the Minister of State and from the forward planning section because the forward planning section of the Department appears to be on an ongoing cliff edge where it has let this school down.

It is time that we provided certainty. Children should not have to be uncertain about their accommodation on a weekly and monthly basis and that has been the story of this school for the past six months because of the failure of the Department to communicate with and forward plan for this school. The least they can be given from the Minister of State, the Department and the Government is that this will not happen any more and that we will not have to continually raise this issue to have it resolved.

Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the second Topical Issue matter in the name of Deputy O'Reilly has been withdrawn, we move on to Deputy Broughan.