Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. St. Peter's national school, Dunboyne, County Meath, is an English-medium, co­educational school under the patronage of the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare. The school is located in prefabricated accommodation on a temporary site. The Department has been made aware that this site has recently become restricted due to construction work under way on part of the land adjacent to where the temporary school is located. The process of acquiring a site for permanent accommodation for St. Peter's national school is under way.

A possible site option was identified and assessment of this site by members of the Department's technical and professional staff deemed it suitable for development of permanent accommodation for the school. Further to the technical assessment, Department officials commenced negotiations to acquire the site and these negotiations are ongoing. Due to the commercial sensitivities associated with land acquisitions generally, it is not possible to provide further information at this time. Officials from my Department have been in contact with the relevant school authorities to keep them apprised of the status of the acquisition process. When the site has been acquired, the Department will be in a position to progress the school project concerned to the architectural planning stage.

I assure the Senator that officials from my Department are aware of the current situation with regard to the temporary site and the need to acquire a site for permanent accommodation as soon as possible and are working hard to achieve this. I thank Senator Byrne for giving me the opportunity to outline the current position regarding St. Peter's national school.