Dáil debates

Thursday, 24 November 2022

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh – Priority Questions

School Accommodation

11:40 am

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the up-to-date report on both the temporary and permanent plans for a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57934/22]

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Gaelscoil Laighean in my area was recently denied planning permission for temporary buildings on the Mount Anville site, which Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county councillors agreed to dispose of earlier this year in order to provide a site for both temporary and permanent buildings for the school. Parents have expressed absolute disbelief and fury that this is now the third planning permission application for temporary buildings that has been put in by the Department and been refused. They asked whether the Department of Education knows how to put in a planning application for a school that has been looking for a location for seven years now.

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Gaelscoil Laighean is currently located in interim accommodation in a building at Kill Lane and a room is also rented from the Mount Merrion parish centre, which is located directly across the road. It is intended that the school will move to interim accommodation and a permanent site at Mount Anville for September 2023.

With regard to the interim accommodation for Gaelscoil Laighean, an application for planning permission was lodged for the Mount Anville depot site on 21 June 2022. The final grant of permission issued from Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council on 16 September 2022 with 18 conditions. My Department’s design team responded to the council on these conditions on 5 October 2022 and is currently liaising with the local authority to finalise and agree all pre-commencement conditions to allow the building contractor to commence work on the site. The contractor has been appointed.

Agreement in principle for the acquisition of the permanent site was reached with the executive of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council in June 2021, subject to the approval of the elected members of the council. The approval by the elected members to dispose of the lands to the Minister for Education was granted at a council meeting in April 2022. This acquisition is subject to the successful grant of planning permission for the permanent school facility.

With regard to the permanent school building project, the Department has commenced the tender process for the appointment of the project manager for the delivery programme, which includes Gaelscoil Laighean. An expressions of interest notice was published on the eTenders portal on 14 November.

Once the project manager is appointed, he or she will commence the tender process for the appointment of the design team that will take the project forward through the stages of architectural planning to tender and construction. The school and its patron body will be kept fully informed as these steps are progressed.

Gaelscoil Laighean is part of a strong pipeline of school building projects for delivery under the Government’s national development plan, NDP. The Department has a strong track record of delivery with more than 360 school building projects at construction during 2022, including more than 50 new schools. The Department has an allocation of €4.4 billion to facilitate delivery during the period 2021 to 2025.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The conditions the planning application failed to meet were around things like lack of public lighting, lack of proper pest control, failure to put in correct waste management systems and other green conditions in those conditions mentioned by the Minister.

What the parents of Gaelscoil Laighean find really hard to believe is that where there are particular conditions around building a temporary school building - bear in mind, this school has been authorised to exist since 2015 and has been in a completely inappropriate temporary situation in Deansgrange since then - the Department does not know how to put in a planning application that meets these conditions. Therefore, we get delay after delay. Can the Minister explain that? Can she give a clear timeline as to when the school will gain access to the Mount Anville site? What is the timeline for the completion of not only the temporary but the permanent school buildings for Gaelscoil Laighean?

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I want to be clear; the planning system is the planning system. In the first instance, however, I totally reject the Deputy's view in terms of the Department of Education and its delivery of school buildings and knowledge of planning. The Department has an extremely strong record of delivery in terms of school buildings. More than 360 school building projects were at construction during 2022. That is a phenomenal investment by the Department. That includes brand new schools, of which there are more than 50. The Department also has an allocation of €4.4 billion to facilitate delivery during the 2021 to 2025 school period.

Specifically with regard to Gaelscoil Laighean, the application for the Mount Anville site was lodged in June 2022. Planning was granted on 16 September 2022, with conditions. The Department's design team responded to the council on these conditions on 5 October and is currently liaising with the local authority to finalise and agree all pre-commencement conditions to allow the building contractor to commence the work on site. The contractor has also been appointed.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It still seems quite extraordinary that some of those conditions could not be met and that we have delays around the failure to meet some of them, some of which I just outlined. One would have thought people would know how to meet these sorts of basic conditions, or "green conditions" as they were described to me. We must also remember that this is a long saga. The school was originally promised a site at Newtownpark Avenue. Then, there was a long battle to get another site. We had to have council land that had been originally zoned for housing disposed to the school.

The site was given to the school because Gaelscoil Laighean needed a site. They seriously question when they will actually gain access. What is the timeline for access to the Mount Anville site for temporary buildings, and the timeline for the completion of the permanent school buildings for Gaelscoil Laighean? Is it possible to get answers to those questions because, otherwise, things seem to just drag on and on?

11:50 am

Photo of Norma FoleyNorma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is intended that the school will move to interim accommodation on its permanent site at Mount Anville for September 2023. The grant of planning permission was received on 16 September 2022. The Department officials, the project manager and the design team have engaged with the planning roles and departments within Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to agree the works required for the public road and junction outside of the school site, as required on condition No. 7 of the planning permission. The last communication from the local authority to our design team on 17 November indicated that the council is finalising its programme of work for Mount Anville and Deerpark Road. The works to the road junction to be carried out by my Department for the interim accommodation for the school are required to align with the council’s programme of work. Both the design team of my Department and the local authority are jointly working to agree that alignment.

Specifically, on the permanent project, once the project manager is appointed, the tender process will commence for the appointment of a design team which will take the project forward through the stages of architectural planning, including preparation of the planning application to the local authority. It is not possible at this time, in advance of the appointment of the project manager, the design team and ahead of the pre-planning consultations with the local authority, to indicate when the planning permission for the project will be secured. Considerable work has been done, however, and the school will be kept informed via its patron, which I believe is An Foras Pátrúnachta.

Photo of Pádraig O'SullivanPádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As we have ten minutes remaining, I will try to fit two questions in, so I will ask Deputies to be as brief as they can, please.

Question No. 71 taken with Written Answers.