Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking this question. I want to raise the issue of the proposed amalgamation of Shanbally and Ringaskiddy national schools in County Cork. They are two existing schools in older buildings. Ringaskiddy has a school population of approximately 60 students and Shanbally is larger with approximately 199 students. The proposed amalgamation has been on the cards for a decade and a half at this stage. Unfortunately, despite this long time it is at the earliest possible stage, namely pre-stage 1 of the school building programme.

There are emergency needs in these schools. I have had the good fortune of being able to visit these schools in my time. I most recently visited Shanbally, the larger of the two schools. Of the nine classrooms in the school, six are prefabs. Many of the prefabs are over ten years old and are in an appalling condition. I witnessed it myself. Floors are collapsing and ceilings are bulging with dampness. There are health and safety issues, in that ceilings could collapse on students. There is dampness and mould. I could go on. There are significant issues with electrical trip switches, which are tripping because of the dampness in the school. There is a chronic need to develop the new school so that the students can get out of these older and dilapidated buildings.

As I said, despite the time involved, the project is at the earliest stage of the school building programme. There is deep frustration locally about the slowness of the process. This has been a long running process. A site was identified a number of years ago. Unfortunately, the site had to be acquired for the development of the M28 motorway. That was one setback. A new site was identified and is fully in place. Everything is now ready to go in terms of developing the new schools.

Given the issues I outlined earlier with the condition of the buildings, the principals of the schools have had to fight tooth and nail is to get emergency funding to carry out works. They have been put through the wringer in trying to get funding to carry out works for roof repairs and to address dampness and other safety issues in school buildings. It is simply not good enough in this day and age that such a number of children are being educated in these facilities.

To be fair, the children receive a good standard of education. The principals and teachers in Ringaskiddy and Shanbally national schools are doing their level best to provide good levels of education. They are also doing their best with regard to special education and are certainly playing their part in providing places for students with additional needs. They need the school building programme to progress quickly and for this school project to be on a proper trajectory towards the delivery of a new school building.

I hope the Minister's response can give some hope to the communities, teachers, pupils and parents locally that the school building project will progress and they will see credible and substantive progress in the near future.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth. This gives me the opportunity to outline to the Dáil the current position regarding the proposed amalgamation of Ringaskiddy Lower National School and Shanbally National School in County Cork.

This project is planned to be delivered as part of phase 2 of the Department’s Adapt 4 programme. That programme uses a professional external programme manager to co-ordinate and drive the integrated project team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of architectural planning, to tender and construction. This programme is being led by integrated project teams consisting of highly skilled and experienced design professionals, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors and various other consultants to deliver the projects.

The project manager for this particular project was appointed in the third quarter of 2023 and is in the process of preparing documentation for the tender process for the appointment of integrated project teams for the phase 2 bundle of projects. The brief for the project is to provide a new 16-classroom primary school with four classrooms for pupils with special educational needs. The new school is expected to be located on a 6.068 acre site which is currently privately owned but is anticipated to be transferred into the ownership of Cork Diocesan Trust. Currently the two national schools are located off site, in two separate locations where they will remain until the new school building is completed.

From the account given by the Deputy today, it sounds like the conditions the students and staff are operating in are not satisfactory. I will pass that on to the Minister and ask that it be taken into consideration as the plan is progressed with urgency.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I appreciate the response. As the Minister of State said, this is to be a new 16-classroom primary school with four classrooms for children with special education needs. This facility is so badly needed in the local community and the constituency that I represent. My main reason for submitting this Topical Issue matter was to get a status update. I appreciate that the Minister of State has provided an update in relation to the project manager being appointed in the third quarter of 2023 who is in the process of preparing documentation for the tender process for the appointment of the integrated project teams for the phase 2 bundle of projects. While I appreciate the reply, it is lacking in clarity in relation to the timeline. It does not give me a lot to go back to the school community, parents or principal and teachers with, in relation to the timeline. If there is any additional information, I would be very grateful for it.

I note the appointment of the project manager and the preparation of the documentation for the tender process but at the same time, this school amalgamation process has been in the pipeline for so long that we do need some credible timelines at this stage, especially because the current conditions are so unsuitable. The facilities where the pupils are receiving their education are not fit for purpose. Despite the conditions, both schools are providing an education to the highest standard but they are really up against it in terms of the environment in which they operate. I visited the schools and saw first hand the conditions and they really are not acceptable. I ask the Minister of State to relay that to the Minister and to stress the urgency of this particular project.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McGrath for his response, for his advocacy on behalf of the schools and for taking the time to go and visit both schools and provide feedback on the floor of the Dáil on what he has seen. This is a little bit more complex than some proposals because we are talking about the amalgamation of two schools. We are also talking about a site that is privately owned and that must come into the ownership of the Cork Diocesan Trust first. The fact that a project manager is already in place and is looking at this and preparing the tender documents is quite helpful but there is that added dimension of ownership which I assume will need to be sorted out.

I went back to the Department of Education to ask if would be possible to get a clear timeframe that I could give the Deputy today. As the Deputy said in his opening remarks, this is at pre-stage one which is why the Department was not able to give me either a start or completion date. The context is that the site needs to be transferred into new ownership and the tender needs to go live. The documentation is being worked on for that tender to go live, which I hope the Deputy will agree is very encouraging. I will pass on his feedback in relation to the conditions the staff and students of the schools are working in.