Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The principal and teaching staff are doing an excellent job there, despite the challenges they face. I am sure they will continue to do an excellent job. However, the children and staff deserve a decent and safe work and learning environment. The contact during the summer months was merely in the form of acknowledgement letters to the letters Pauline Costello submitted. There was no information contained in them. The contact in January that was the first of a substantial nature.

I am glad to hear that a project brief is being prepared. I hope details of it will be delivered to the board of management at the meeting on 7 February. I re-emphasise that this really is a priority at this stage. I understand there are other priority areas around the country but this is of urgent priority because of the census data and the desperate conditions in which the pupils and teaching staff have had to subsist for the past 17 years. Could the Minister tell me when we will see the extension being completed? Is the projected date in 12 months or 18 months? In the Minister's experience, what is the time scale between the project brief being completed and the actual delivery?