Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. An uncompleted school in County Carlow was promised facilities over ten years ago, but it is still waiting. Those involved in the school in Bagenalstown feel very let down by the Department of Education and Skills, especially in the light of all the promises made in the national planning framework on its release last week. In 2006 Presentation De La Salle in Bagenalstown was promised funding for a PE hall. The Government has been in power for seven years, but the school still has no PE classroom for nearly 700 students. It is the only school in County Carlow without this vital room. An outdoor general purpose area is being used for PE classes, but it is unsuitable when it rains and the students cannot exercise. There has been a lot of talk recently about rising obesity levels and how each young adult needs 30 minutes of exercise each day, but the students feel salt is being rubbed into their wounds because on a rainy or freezing winter's day they cannot go outside and have the recommended amount of exercise they are told they need for their health. The best time to use the general purpose area is in the summer, but the school is closed then. On any one day in this excellent school more than 11 prefab rooms are in use to ensure students are provided with an education. The staff and management are doing their level best, but they are really feeling the pinch. How can we say we value a child's education if we fail to provide proper facilities to inspire learning?

The school is included in a building programme for the period 2019 to 2021, but it has not heard anything about the appointment of a design team or plans. Student numbers have risen from 350 in 2009 to 692 today, with further projected increases to 720 in 2018-19 and 745 in 2019-20. Where will the school put the extra students? The conditions in which the staff and students find themselves are demoralising. Are there plans to proceed with the project? The Government likes to launch ambitious plans, but it often fails to follow through on them with action. That is clearly evident in the fact that five new schools announced in 2013 have yet to be delivered. Every year since the number has increased. Furthermore, sites have not yet been found for the new schools announced by the Government in its school building plan for 2015. The Minister launched a new programme, but sites have not yet been found for the schools he thinks will be built. How can those involved in one school in Bagenalstown have faith that the promises made will be kept?

Already the schools which were scheduled for completion by the collapsed company Carillion are unfinished or lying idle with no staff. Parents and students are wondering what will happen at Tyndall College in County Carlow. Where does Presentation De La Salle sit in the Minister's ambitious school plans? Will he or someone acting on his behalf meet the board of management and the principal? The school has tried on numerous occasions to have a meeting with him, but it has net been successful and no one from the Department has visited it. What is the position on the school project? Can the Minister understand the urgent need for the PE hall, given that in 2018 the school has over 700 students? It is demoralising. We are very lucky that there are two excellent secondary schools in Bagenalstown, one of which was known as the vocational ETB school and is now called Coláiste Aindriú. The Minister needs to make sure what is in place is fixed for the students in the school.Why is the Minister building new schools when other schools do not have the conditions they should have?