Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it gives me an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the current position on the temporary and permanent accommodation for Ballinteer Educate Together national school. The school is located in temporary accommodation at St Tiernan's community school, Balally, Dublin 14. The school currently has nine mainstream classes, which will increase to 11 mainstream classes in September 2017. As the Senator will be aware, my Department recently completed the purchase of the Notre Dame campus located on Churchtown Road, Dublin 14. The campus will be used to facilitate temporary accommodation for the Ballinteer school from September 2017, pending completion of the permanent accommodation for the school at the St. Tiernan's site. The Notre Dame campus will also facilitate the permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil na Fuinseoige.A technical assessment was carried out by my Department in order to accommodate the schools concerned as well as the phasing out of the post-primary school on this campus. It is clear that there is sufficient accommodation on the campus for all schools. Following completion of the technical assessment, the Department of Education and Skills outlined its proposals for the accommodation of the three schools on the Notre Dame campus and for the most part this was positively received by patron representatives and the school principals. The Department is examining some issues which have been raised following this meeting and will be in touch with the schools again this week in this regard.

I know that there is a long history with this. In December 2012, as Senator Richmond is aware, outline planning permission to provide a permanent school building for Ballinteer Educate Together national school was submitted to the relevant local authority but was refused on the grounds of site access. This was appealed by my Department to An Bord Pleanála but subsequently withdrawn to facilitate submission to the local authority of an amended outline planning permission in 2013, which was also refused on similar grounds. This decision was appealed by the Department of Education and Skills to An Bord Pleanála but was refused. However, the board considered that the matter of assessing alternative means of accessing these lands would benefit from a co-ordinated approach by my Department and the planning authority in the interests of achieving a comprehensive and balanced solution to ongoing access issues on this educational campus.

As the Senator will appreciate, this is a complex planning issue and my Department has approached and met with all of the relevant parties including the council, the schools and third-party landowners with a view to finding an acceptable solution to the access issue. All aspects are being progressed in close liaison with the local authority and it is imperative that all of this work is done to the satisfaction of the council in order to ensure that a third planning application is successful. I assure the Senator that my Department is fully committed to bringing this project to a satisfactory conclusion as soon as the planning issues have been resolved.