Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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My question for the Minister for education relates to Presentation Primary School in George's Hill. Before I get to the problems about the school, I want to say that this is a great school in the heart of the north inner city in Dublin 7. It is a DEIS band 1 school. It probably has one of the most diverse populations of all schools in the country and has a significant amount of need, both social and educational. It has a hugely committed staff, who go above and beyond in ways that will never be aired. Three years ago, the Department paid for extensive works to the school, including three new autism classes, a lift, a new rooftop yard, fire doors, a reconfiguration of the top floor and other works. I understand the project manager was KSN, the main contractor was Vision and other contractors were involved.

These works should be a source of pride for the school. Instead, the school has been left with a disgraceful botched job that no one seems to be taking responsibility for. The lack of accountability and oversight by the Department of education is frankly disgraceful. I visited the school a number of weeks ago. My appeal to the Minister of State and to the Minister for education is to visit this school. What I saw was asbestos in the floors throughout the building and broken tiles that occurred during the works and on which children are walking every single day. There is water ingress on the roof yard. The plug points have no earthing. The roof shed is disintegrating. It is on the fourth floor. It is a flat roof and it is unprotected. Think about that in the middle of a storm. The floors were damaged when the fire doors were being installed and the plumbing is simply inadequate. One of the maddest things when you walk through the school is that the walls are only half-painted. The painter went to a certain point and no further.

Some of these situations arose during construction. Some of it was pre-existing. When the contractor went to the project manager three years ago, they were told the Department had not approved expanding the scope of works. Earlier this year, the Department said it should have approved them but, lo and behold, the project manager said the account was closed and the case had to be resubmitted. When the school went back to the original contractors for new quotes, they declined and advised the school to find an alternative elsewhere. When the school went elsewhere for those quotes, every other contractor said they could not get involved in this and that the school would have to go back to the original contractors. You could not make this up.

All the while, this is a school catering to some of the most disadvantaged children in this city. The principal herself has had to climb onto the roof to apply Tec7 to a leaking roof light. She has had to paint a closet room to try to create some space in the school and has had to become an expert in unblocking toilets. This is the reality of this school. There are other schools that are suffering from a severe shortage in terms of the capitation grant and the cost of running the school. More crucially, we have a very real health and safety risk here. In fact, it is an immediate health and safety risk. The Department of education, to my mind, has done nothing to investigate the works that it paid for three years ago, nor has it taken any actions to ensure that the contractors it paid actually did the correct work.

A letter was sent to the Department last week from the board of management of the school. I appreciate that it is budget week and there is lots to be done, but the letter pointed out that there is an immediate health and safety risk. As of this afternoon, there has been no response from the Department of education to that school. If that school were in a better off area with parents with more political capital, I think there would be a speedier response. As of this afternoon, the Department of education has not acknowledged any of these problems. Tonight, I want to hear from the Minister of State what the Department is going to do about it.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague the Minister for education, Deputy McEntee, who is unfortunately unavailable this evening. I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this matter as it provides me with an opportunity to clarify the position in relation to the repurposing works undertaken at George’s Hill primary school in 2022. The Deputy may be aware that George’s Hill is a Catholic, co-educational primary school. The school has a current enrolment of 165 pupils and a staffing level of a principal, nine mainstream class teachers and three special class teachers.

The project approved by the Department of Education and Youth in 2022 provided accommodation for three special classes and associated ancillary accommodation for students with special educational needs. In addition, repurposing works were completed to provide a general-purpose area and a rooftop play area. This project was delivered under the Department's devolved special educational needs reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. This programme involves the use of project management supports that are designed to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and help ease the administrative workload for school authorities in the management and delivery of projects. The project was completed in 2022.

The school principal made contact with the Department of Education and Youth’s planning and building unit earlier this year relating to a request for further works. It appears that the works described may fall within the scope of the Department’s emergency works scheme. The advice given to the principal was that the next step was for the school to submit an application under the emergency works scheme for consideration. The Department has no record of receiving an application from the school and will make contact with the school directly in this regard.

Since 2020, the Department of Education and Youth has invested over €6 billion in schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million was approved by the Government and has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for the Department of Education and Youth to €1.6 billion.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for that reply on behalf of the Minister for education. I have to ask him directly. Is he comfortable with children walking on asbestos tiles every day of the week? The tiles were broken by works undertaken three years ago. We know that there is no safe level of asbestos. I have to ask him that direct question.

The Minister of State said the project was completed in 2022. He mentioned the good money, €6 billion, being spent on schools. Some of it has been well spent. Some of it, frankly, has been appallingly spent. A project manager was taken on to oversee this project. It is a project manager who, I am aware, is also involved in other school projects at this time. If that project manager has reported back to the Department of education that the project has been completed, there is a serious dereliction of duty there. In fact, I would go as far as to say that somebody has been seriously negligent in reporting to the Department. There is fault here on the part of the project manager and whatever officials in the Department wrote the statement claiming the project had been completed in 2022.

It is a source of shame that the Department of education would consider any works left half-done to have been completed. This is particularly the case in a school that provides a safe and secure space to children, many of whom have gone through trauma, are going through homelessness accommodation or have seen things in their life that any child should not see. There is an even greater impetus and need to ensure that we get things right in this school, yet we have this nonsense that the project was completed in 2022. That is factually incorrect. I would like the Minister of State to bring that back to the Minister for education and to plead with her to visit the school as soon as possible.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I listened to what the Deputy said and some of the charges she made are fairly grim. My understanding, from reading the reply prepared for me, is that the works that were contracted for in 2022 have been completed. It was only this year that the school principal made contact with the Department looking for further works to be carried out. As of when this reply was put together, the application had not yet come in from the school.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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They cannot submit it because they cannot get a quote.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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They could put in a report from an engineer with a costing on it, I am sure. Nothing has been received. The Department has no record of receiving it. It is going to make contact directly with the school as soon as possible because it is important that no school or child be left in a danger, if that is the case.

I come from a construction background. If the works were completed in 2022 and it was 2025 before the principal made contact, I would be concerned.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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There is a new school principal.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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To fully answer the Deputy's question, I will take her concerns back to the Minister. The Department will be making contact with the principal as a matter of course because no application has come in yet. If there are difficulties in that regard, I am sure the Department of education will be able to assist with advice on how to get the costings together in order to make the application formally.