Dáil debates
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Schools Building Projects
10:00 pm
Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important issue for the debate. There are many who will make the case for their local school building project to be progressed. That is understandable but it comes with the risk that all cases are heard at the same and all cases are treated the same. I am here to make the case that all cases are not the same. I believe the case of Lismullen National School is such that it deserves immediate and urgent attention and action.
Due to substandard, wholly inadequate accommodation, the 269 children who attend Lismullen National School are denied what we would all expect as the basics. The building is totally outdated; the external space is similarly inadequate. Students are accommodated in small, cramped rooms. The original building was built in 1959, 65 years ago; the new building, so-called, was opened in 1992, 32 years ago; and prefabs, many more than 20 years old, make up the rest. This has a huge impact on teaching and learning for children and the work environment for staff and management.
I will touch on a couple of aspects. The first is heat. The building is so cold that the heating goes on at 4 a.m. to heat the rooms. The vast majority of that heat goes out the paper-thin windows, walls and roof. Staff and children are regularly forced to wear coats and hats during the day. The second is power. The fuseboard is overloaded and regularly trips. That means that children are denied the usual ICT experience. They cannot store the materials anyway because there is not enough space. On space, there is no indoor space to gather as a school community for school assembly or sports. That means there is no PE in winter. They cannot complete the dance or gymnastic strands of the PE curriculum. They cannot have Christmas plays, music and drama or events that ordinarily include an audience. The school simply cannot conduct them. There is no space internally or, to a large extent, externally for sports. This has an impact on the physical development and the health of the student population.
Children with additional educational needs do not have space for movement breaks. There are no sensory gardens not to mention occupational therapy or physiotherapy. The group for sustainability cannot happen anymore. The buddy benches are not being used for their purpose due to overcrowding. There was a discussion earlier about the school hot meals programme. Such are the constraints in this school because there is no access to facilities to heat the food that they need to have a supplier who brings the food already hot. That is a significant constraint on the number of options for suppliers.
Staff are doing their absolute best in everything they are doing for the children but morale is dreadfully low. They have one toilet for 25 staff. They are working in the cold. Like parents, they see no light on the horizon.
This is wholly inadequate accommodation for a primary school in 2024. It is wrong. It is as simple as that. The most recent response from the Department was on 23 January. It said there was a preferred bidder identified and the Department would be in contact with the school and the design team in relation to the progression of the project. That was almost a month ago. The school population is watching on tonight. They want to know when this project will get the green light and when a letter of authorisation will issue.
Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity, on behalf of the Department of Education, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the large scale capital building project for Lismullen National School, County Meath. I am answering this question on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley.
This project is included in the Department of Education’s construction programme which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of Project Ireland 2040 framework. The Department’s planning and building unit is currently assessing its work programme and priorities for 2024 in the context of overall requirements. Lismullen National School remains a priority for delivery, in line with the accommodation issues present at the school. The tender process was undertaken and a contractor identified. The next steps for this project will be the completion of the tender process and progression to stage 4, which is construction.
I want to reassure the Deputy and the Lismullen National School community that the school building project will be progressed and delivered. The Department will update the school authorities when there is a further update on the progression of the major project.
The project brief for the project at Lismullen National School includes the construction of a 16-classroom primary school and the demolition of the existing school building. The next step is that the project is at an advanced stage of architectural planning, stage 3, tender action and award and the next step in the process will be the authorisation to issue the letter of intent to the contractor. The officials are determining the best timeline for proceeding to construction. When the project commences on site, there will be an estimated 20-months contract duration.
The timeline on this is as follows. In December 2011, the design team for this project was appointed. In January 2012, the project was authorised to progress to stage 2a, which is the developed sketch design stage. Then in February 2013, the project completed stage 2a and was authorised to proceed to stage 2b, which is the detailed design and which includes securing statutory approvals and preparation of tender documents. It then went to the phasing strategy, which was developed in detail by the design team, and then the planning permission application for the temporary accommodation was lodged with Meath County Council in January 2019.
Following a request for further information from Meath County Council, the planning was granted in August 2019. At that point, the design team was working on the completion of the stage 2b report, which requires the inclusion of a near-zero energy building in compliance with the 2017 amendment to part L of the current building regulations. The stage 2b report was received in February 2021 for the Department’s review and approval. Then on 10 May 2021 the Department issued stage 2b comments to the school and design team for its intention. On 28 March 2022, the pre-qualification final shortlist was received in the Department from the design team leader. On 8 April 2022, a final stage 2b approval letter was issued to the school and design team, approving the stage 2b design and approval to proceed to tender stage.
On 1 July 2022, incomplete tender submissions were received by the design team. On 20 July 2022, the design team, in consultation with the Department issued approval for the school to proceed with the open tender procedure. In October 2022, the extension of time granted to the tender return date to facilitate contractors interested in tendering saw a new tender return date of the end of October 2022. In January 2023, clarifications were requested on the tender report received by the Department and the tenderer subsequently withdrew. Then we went to May 2023 up to January 2024, as the Deputy mentioned.
The reason I outlined that is to show the Deputy that all along there has been progress at every different stage and that it is progressing.
Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I must say there will be real disappointment. The Minister of State’s contribution is a saga, from the perspective of the students, parents and staff. This school was first accepted onto the list of new school builds in 2007. Parents whom I met last night could point to other school buildings that went on at the same time or even eight years later and have progressed to completion or almost completion at this stage. There is huge frustration at the rate of progress here.
The school population want to hear from the Minister of State and it is welcome that she says it is a priority but they want a clear timeline and a clear indication of the date on which the letter of intent will issue. They have had the real disappointment of a contractor pulling out in the past and there is understandable concern that this will happen again. This is an horizon that is always just a step away. This is a very proud school and the whole community is doing its level best but it is not working with facilities that are suitable in this day and age in 2024. They are looking to the Minister of State, to the senior Minister, to the Department and to their local Government representatives for a clear date on which the letter of intent will issue and the giving of that green light to this project after many, many false dawns.
10:10 pm
Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy and I understand his frustration. However, having read this brief myself on the progress that is there, one can quite clearly see that there is a chronological timeline. I note that there was a planning permission which lapsed at one point, a new planning application was made to Meath County Council in July 2023 and the final grant of planning was received in October 2023. As the Deputy has pointed out there and as I said earlier, it is on the priority list. The fact that I am in the Dáil Chamber here today answering the Deputy's Topical Issue question will bring attention to this matter and I have no doubt that it would be done as soon as possible.
The Deputy will appreciate that since 2020, the Department of Education has invested in the region of €4.3 billion in schools throughout the country involving the completion of over 800 school building projects with construction currently under way at approximately 300 other school projects, which includes 34 new school buildings. I will bring this matter to the attention of the senior Minister for the Deputy.