Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak. I thank the Minister for being here at this ungodly hour. She is well aware of the issue with the Carrigtohill Community College campus. I will always give credit where credit is due. The issues were not the fault of the Department. There were many issues with the planning and mistakes were made. I also want to acknowledge that a temporary campus was set up in Fota Park. In early December, children from Carrigtohill village were trying to walk and cycle to the temporary campus. Some paths were very dangerous and overgrown, and I thank Cork County Council for moving very swiftly on that. It made the area very safe.

I suspect other Deputies in east Cork have also been in contact with many worried parents and children. I ask for clarity on when the work in the community college will be finished and when students can return to it. This is not just an issue that affects east Cork, but we have struggled for the past ten years with school places and transport, disability services and SNAs. I pass the site twice a week. I have watched progress from afar and have visited it. The roads have been built and the lighting has been installed.

I have been involved in construction for 22 years so I know water and sewerage services etc., need to go in first.

I am here as a representative of the people of east Cork, particularly the families in Carrigtohill, Midleton and surrounding areas who are hoping to get their children into the schools. They have asked me to ask the Minister to provide a step-by-step plan. We were promised that the tender would be awarded in quarter 1 of this year. Can I get definitive dates to give to the people of Carrigtohill and the surrounding areas for when it will start and when it is intended to be finished. That is all I need to know because this is putting so much stress on families.

I have had it for the last two years in particular in the summer months because we do not take a break in the summer months when we need to deal with school places, school transport, disability services and obviously special needs assistants in schools in east Cork. It is very difficult. Parents have been extremely stressed and they feel like they are pitting principals against other principals. I have spoken to principals in schools in east Cork who have been challenged in supermarkets on their day off. This should not be happening. I am not pointing the finger. It is not the Minister's fault; it is just the system.

Can we get clarity on when the whole system will be set up? When will it start? What is the definitive date when children in the east Cork area can move into the community college on Station Road? I am not here to bash people all the time. We are on the Topical Issue Debate and the purpose is to try to get answers. People sometimes forget the effort that people make. We have the temporary campus, but people are in fear that this temporary campus could be in use for ten years. I am trying to get clarity from the Minister.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it allows me to provide an update on the current position on the planned development of the new three-school campus at Carrigtohill. I know of the Deputy's ongoing interest and I also know the interest of Deputies Stanton and O'Connor, who have consistently raised the matter with me also.

Carrigtwohill Community College is a co-educational post-primary school under the patronage of Cork Education and Training Board and the Diocese of Cloyne. The school first opened its doors in August 2016 and is located in interim accommodation at Unit 2A, Fota Business Park, Carrigtohill. The brief for the project is to provide a new 1,000-pupil post-primary school with a three-classroom special educational needs unit.

Scoil Chliodhna Community National School is a co-educational primary school which opened in September 2015 and is currently in interim accommodation at Carrigtwohill GAA sports complex. The brief for the project is to provide a new 24-classroom primary school with a three-classroom special educational needs unit.

Scoil Mhuire Naofa National School is a co-educational primary school and is under the patronage of the Catholic Bishop of Cloyne. The school is currently located on a parish-owned site consisting of ten permanent classrooms with seven classes in temporary accommodation on site. The brief for the project is to provide a new 24-classroom school with a three-classroom special educational needs unit.

It is an impressive testament to the ambitious plans that this campus will be the largest single-school building project ever undertaken by the Department and will serve a school community of 2,400 pupils. As the Deputy has outlined, there have been difficulties with planning. A planning application for the permanent accommodation for the three schools was lodged in March 2019. A request for further information was received in August 2019. A final grant of planning permission was received on 6 July 2020. In 2021, my Department engaged with a third-party contractor regarding the road network which is required to be constructed by that party to facilitate the schools building projects. The construction of the roads is now approaching completion, which is very positive.

In 2021, the Department established a design and build contractors framework to which design and build projects are tendered. The project for the Carrigtohill campus was tendered to this framework on 14 June 2021. Since the commencement of the tender process, the Department has explicitly required potential tenderers to prioritise the completion of the community college first within the campus.

The tenders were returned on 27 October 2021 and the tender assessment report from my Department's project manager has been recently received by my Department and is currently under review. It is anticipated that the letter of intent to appoint the building contractor will issue in the coming weeks in quarter 1.

Once the successful contractor is appointed, the Department's technical team will immediately liaise with the contractor to ensure that the delivery of the community college is prioritised within the contractor's programme of works. Throughout construction, the Department's technical team will ensure that a sharp focus is maintained on delivering the finished community college as early as possible within the campus construction programme.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister's reply. That this is the largest single school building project ever undertaken by the Department shows that the population of east Cork is absolutely ballooning and is also set to balloon in the next ten years. I wanted to raise the matter because we are at maximum capacity in other areas. In Midleton, St. Mary's High School has major capacity issues. There is a necessity for all of this. As I said at the outset, this is about getting clarity. I welcome the urgency on this. Despite the hiccups at the start, things are moving forward.

I would like to liaise with the Minister. We do not need to do it through Topical issues and parliamentary questions. I would like to liaise with her to keep the people of Carrigtohill and east Cork updated on it. I have seen progress. The foundations and the services are in. However, we are now at the end of January and people are getting concerned that it might be another year. It is a massive undertaking with a capacity of nearly 2,500 pupils. Demand is there and it will grow.

I would appreciate even a bimonthly statement from the Department or perhaps the Minister and I could work here in the House to outline progress, including meetings with the developers or the design team and beyond that. It is all about education - pardon the pun - and keeping the community informed of the progress. At least we are not seeing a regression. We have seen the progress of the site. We have seen the roads go in. The lamp posts have gone up. If we can be the liaison officers for the people that we represent in east Cork, I would greatly appreciate that. I again thank the Minister for her reply.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate the Deputy's interest in this project. There is great unanimity among the public representatives on the matter. At the request of Deputy O'Connor, I met a number of the school leaders in the area. Deputy Buckley specifically referenced the wider area of east Cork. I am personally very familiar with the area because I spent time teaching there. I am very conscious of its needs and demands given that it is a growing area. I appreciate the high priority that is being placed on the future of this three-school campus. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

It will be a significant achievement for Carrigtwohill Community College, Scoil Chliodhna Community National School and Scoil Mhuire Naofa National School. It is a very ambitious project and undertaking by the Department of Education, and will be the largest campus we have ever delivered. The Department is acutely aware of the need to provide modern permanent new school buildings for these three schools and we are acting proactively to do all that we can to deliver this as a matter of priority.

As the Deputy has indicated, it is very heartening for people to see, for example, the roads, which are very important for the delivery of the project, now nearing completion. The Deputy also highlighted the other aspects. I assure him that every possible priority is being given to the project. As I indicated, we are looking at the letter of intent being issued in quarter 1. It is progressing and I know there is great interest from everybody who will benefit from it in the locality and the wider community. We will continue to give it the priority it deserves.