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

I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for raising this matter and I have a further update for her. I thank her very much for extending an invitation to visit St. Molaga's. I will certainly ensure that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, is invited to visit. I am afraid that I will stick to my brief of higher education institutes, as I have more than enough to do there. However, I am sure he will visit the school.

A previous Commencement matter on this school was raised on 22 January 2018 and since then the technical site visit has taken place and the project brief for the proposed project at this school is in the final stages of completion. The draft prepared reflects this position. In addition, further temporary accommodation was approved to meet a deficit of accommodation for the existing staffing and enrolment levels. While that approval in principle issued to the school in January 2018, the school did not revert to the Department with the R1 form that is used for detailing tenders received until mid June.

Final approval issued from the Department on 17 July as additional information was required in respect of some cost in the interim period. The prefabs are in place. The Department of Education and Skills received a letter from the school yesterday, 25 September, advising of the damage caused to three prefabs by Storm Ali last week. As mentioned in the notes with the reply to the Commencement matter, the school is liaising with its insurance company in regard to fixing the damage.