James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the matter also raised by other Members of structural issues in Ardgillan Community College and some 29 other colleges. We should not be in this position. I had the Minister here in the House earlier today to address accommodation issues in Rush and Skerries and he alluded to this problem in Ardgillan too. We have new schools built in the last ten years and we find that some of them are not safe.

I understand that there was a failure in this instance to ensure sufficient ties between the outer and inner walls. If this is true, it is gross neglect. The builder has to be held to account and no further contract should issue to that builder until the full facts are available and the costs are recovered. One wonders if there are other buildings outside the 30 identified that could have other problems due to this old pre-2014 habit of builders certifying the buildings themselves through their own agent. We need to look at our new regulations from 2014 and ensure there are no other loopholes that would allow this sort of behaviour.

I thank the Minister and the Department of Education and Skills for acting so swiftly to protect our children and teachers from an unsafe building. Our children are our future and they are getting the best education from excellent teaching staff. Both our children and teachers are entitled to a safe and excellent environment, to allow teachers to give our children the best education to prepare them to compete in a very challenging and modern world. I will continue to work for the parents and children of Dublin Fingal to ensure there is adequate, safe accommodation for our students. I will be very happy to work with the Minister to ensure that we achieve this goal. There is no point in having a situation where people, having fought long and hard to have accommodation for their child at school, find that the accommodation is not safe.