Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A debacle has been going on for well over ten years in respect of finding a site for a three-school campus. The three schools in question are Crana College secondary school in Buncrana, serving the Inishowen Peninsula, Gaelscoil Bhun Cranncha and Gaelcholáiste Chineál Eoghain. In the case of Crana College, the school is having to use up its leisure and amenity space to erect more prefabs. It is a fantastic school that recently got top marks in an evaluation by the Department. However, it is completely overcrowded. The school desperately needs a new site and has raised the matter again and again.

Gaelscoil Bhun Cranncha is another fantastic school but it is in an inappropriate location. It is based in a youth and community development building that is used for multiple purposes, which gives rise to child protection concerns and challenges. The school is grateful to its hosts for accommodating it for nearly 20 years now. In a whole-school evaluation in 2006, the inspector indicated that acquisition of a new building for the school was urgently required. That was 12 years ago and the school has been trying to do so.

Gaelcholáiste Chineál Eoghain is also located in a community facility, Tullyarvan Mill. It, too, is very grateful to be hosted there but it is not appropriate for the school's growing educational needs.

These are three schools where the parents and teachers have been generous enough to come together. One might think that would have made it easier and more cost effective, yet all these years later we still do not have a solution. Two years ago, the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, announced that he was delighted to be informed that a preferred site had been identified. We thought an announcement was imminent and we would be able to go to planning, design and tendering. Recently, colleagues of the Minister of State have said they have some good news. I am hoping the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, can today officially confirm on behalf of the Government that a site has been secured and we can move urgently to the planning phase and start to get these schools ready in order that we can have a bright future for our children, teachers and parents in the Inishowen area.