Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. Fair play to anybody who is going to sit through ten Topical Issues. It is a matter of actually getting delivery on some of these issues. This issue is one where you think there must be a simple solution, so it is a matter of us finding that solution. I was sent a letter from the board of management of Ardee Educate Together National School and its principal, Ann Middleton. I was lucky enough to go around the site for the new build. All I can say, which is no different from what is in the letter, is that it is absolutely fabulous work. It needs to happen as soon as possible. As I said, I had a site visit. They are great grounds. It is an absolutely spectacular building. It looks like something that is fit for purpose, as we would expect of any new build these days. However, there are particular issues and I think they could be very easily addressed now. If they are not addressed now, it will be very costly to deliver later.

These are the details that were sent to me regarding special needs provision, buses and transport. The school has five special needs classes for pupils with autism, comprising 30 pupils. They do not have enough drop-off and collection points for special needs buses. They barely have room for two minibuses, whereas they require five. The lack of bus parking will cause backup for the remaining buses and cars and result in huge traffic jams and delays. Special needs pupils with autism have difficulties with transferring and waiting and this could affect pupil regulation and cause meltdown for pupils with challenging behaviours. The present system will result in absolute traffic chaos. The principal has repeatedly raised this with Louth County Council and the architects, Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects. I went to Louth County Council myself and was told this had gone to the design team, which had refused it on the basis of cost, and that it would have to go back for planning. However, I agree with what is written in the letter in that this issue can be easily resolved by continuing the bus parking set-down area by three spaces to the west onto unused space, of which there is a lot, between the school and the boundary fence. The letter actually says "see map" but we do not need to get into that.

This is quite simple. If you are going into the school building, you will come off the road and swing a left. That is a road on the school property that could be extended. Regarding the school car park, I was sent a plan showing how it could be extended with a widened road. There are 21 spaces. There is a need for probably double that number. There are two set-down minibus spaces and you would almost have to park perfectly to get into them. Like I said, there are five minibuses that will leave children with challenging needs to the school. In addition, they come from various places, so it is not as though the school can just put more children onto one particular bus.

This has been in operation for a long time. The school building was promised in 2012. It may be that a ratio that was delivered earlier regarding parking spaces does not take into account the five autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes. Staff are coming from right across Louth, Meath, Monaghan and beyond, so it is not as though people are able to cycle or whatever else.

I was shown the works and met the contractor. He will very soon carry out tarmacking and other works. If the work was done at this point in time, it could be done cheaply and would only involve removing stuff that has been put in from an aesthetics point of view. I ask that we find a solution as soon as possible.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Hildegard Naughton.

As he said, the brief for this major school building project is to provide an eight-classroom school with an additional four classroom special educational needs, SEN, base included. The project has been devolved to Louth County Council for delivery. The project is currently at stage 4, that is, construction, of the delivery process. It is envisaged that, pending no unforeseen delays or issues, the estimated completion date will be within the first quarter of 2026. It is great to hear that the Deputy had a site visit and saw with his own eyes how well the construction is proceeding. From his account, it sounds like the project is on track to meet the deadline.

The Department has been actively engaging with the design team and Louth County Council throughout the process and will continue to engage to provide practical advice and assistance on this important project. The Minister for Education and Youth acknowledged that the school previously submitted a request for additional car park spaces which was reviewed by the Department but was not approved.

The design team is now required to construct and progress the project in accordance with the project brief, as agreed in the service level agreement and in accordance with any local authority planning conditions. The number of car parking spaces currently provided for is what is in the planning conditions. What is currently provided for is in line with the approved planning requirements and what happens generally. While I appreciate the Deputy has said the problem could be resolved simply, it sounds like it would require changes to a planning application.

Since 2020, the Department has invested over €6 billion in schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of over 1,300 school buildings. In addition, repurposing and optimisation of existing accommodation capacity across the school estate has been a key enabler of timely, local provision of special class capacity in a way that supports best practice in inclusion and integration. About 80% of new special classes in 2025-26 are being facilitated in repurposed classroom accommodation.

In July, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026 to 2030 under the new national development plan, NDP. As part of this allocation, the Department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. Regarding project roll-out for larger-scale projects and the additional school accommodation scheme, the approach will be to continue to maximise capacity and prioritise the most urgent needs.

The Deputy spoke about a solution for his school put forward by the principal, namely, widening the road and extending the car park. To me, this might require planning permission and would be something he would need to engage on with Louth County Council.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Louth County Council is almost a facilitator. It speaks to the design team. I raised this issue with the Taoiseach in terms of the need to streamline regulation. We all know the issues that exist in respect of planning. We need a system that can be more agile. While we need checks and balances, that should be possible.

If mistakes are made or issues are seen, they could be addressed in a timely manner. The project could proceed through the process and the problem would still persist and would need to be dealt with in six months. There may be a new planning application, but at that stage we would consider removing parts that have been added in, such as hedges, fencing, pavement or tarmac and other works that need to be done.

At any point in time, we could have a proper and speedy review of what is possible and how quickly we could fix this. There will be traffic chaos, which has been pointed out. There are very simple issues.

The process was probably simpler once upon a time when the school was given responsibility to deliver projects. I am sure there were problems and mistakes in that system, but at least schools did not have to go through three layers. Louth County Council is only one of those layers and then we have the Department, building unit, architects and contractors. This is not working. The process is taking too long.

There are issues in respect of the yard size. I have written to the Minister and will hand the Minister of State a letter later. I ask that she follows up with the Minister. We need to try to deal with this as quickly as possible. This will become a bigger problem very quickly and it will become a more expensive problem. It is an absolute necessity that action is taken.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. I hear and appreciate his frustration. The number of car parking spaces currently provided for is in line with the approved planning requirements. In order to change the plans, there would need to be a new planning application. I appreciate he does not want to do that after the new school is built, given that it would involve additional disruption. The advice would be to engage now with Louth County Council to see it is if it is possible for the planning changes to happen.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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It not the council; the Department has a role to play.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I will pass on the Deputy's feedback to the Minister to see if planning was granted whether it would be possible for the Department to fund those works. Right now, there is no planning grounds for it. That seems to be the problem and that is where I will advise the Deputy to take this next.