Results 1-20 of 10,836 for in 'Committee meetings' speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The witnesses are welcome. I start by asking about the Mercy Convent in Naas, County Kildare. The school build started in 2017, the year the current sixth class started school, and the school will not be complete for another two years. Is that the longest there has been? The school has no PE hall as a consequence of being accommodated in prefabs. There is somewhere in the region of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is it the only one?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: How rare?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Will Mr. Loftus give us numbers or an example?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I understand that. I am looking for the ones that do not. That is what we are here for.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Will Mr. Loftus give us a note on that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is it usual for security-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I understand that. Windows on-site had to be replaced because they were left out in the weather. It had to be sealed. It has been quite a saga and the ones who have paid the biggest price are the children. It must be the most expensive school when you take on board that prefabs and security have had to be paid for. Is security normally included in the contract, or is it an exceptional...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: So, it is unusual.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will stop Mr. Loftus there because I have a number of questions.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I have a number of questions I want to ask, and I have little time. Will Mr. Loftus provide the committee with a note of situations where security is paid for, separate from it being included in the contract? We can look at that then. The Department said it plans years out. County Kildare is growing rapidly and gained 25,000 people between the two most recent censuses. We have...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: What about concessionaries?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It took 45 months from the appointment of a design team in March 2012 to complete the Temple Carrig School in County Wicklow. The school sought an extension and a design team was appointed in 2021 but the school is still at the first stage 37 months later. People at the school estimate it will take them six years from beginning to end to add an extension whereas it only took half that time...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Every application means there is a new school or extension needed. Please tell us more about that priority.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We have a growing population so the Department must be ahead of things.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I wish to come back to a couple issues, one of which is capacity in schools. The Department builds new schools. It knows the areas that are growing and have expanding populations, yet the schools being built do not have additional capacity. The upshot will be that prefabs will be required after a school is built because perhaps there is not another site available and it takes so long to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Sorry, where is the forward planning when it is known that a school is fully subscribed and the Department is building a new school but not adding to the capacity even though the area is growing in population?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: There is no capacity for growth, however, even though the Department knows the areas are growing and have expanding populations. I refer to areas like Fingal, Kildare, Meath, south Dublin and Wicklow. It is not new that they are growing rather they have been growing and there has been a pattern of growth for decades now. Why would the Department not factor that in when looking at capacity?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will stop Mr. Loftus there. I know these things well. A site in Celbridge under the control of NAMA was identified in 2017. There is St. Raphael’s special school. These are the most vulnerable children. It is not a question of adding an extra classroom to an existing school, rather this is one-to-one care. The school is falling down around the staff and pupils. St....

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Office of Minister for Education (16 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I am sure it will be one of several examples, but in those situations, can the Department fast forward through the design processes?