Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister of State and thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to deal with this matter. It concerns a school that has over 350 pupils and 75% of the accommodation of which consists of prefabs. I was in it in the last two weeks and in quite a number of the rooms there were clear marks on the ceilings where water was coming in. The process of applying through the Department of Education and Skills for a new school building dates back over 14 years. Full planning permission was obtained for the existing site. As Carraig Na bhFear is within ten miles of Cork city, the view is that it is going to grow substantially in the next ten to 15 years. Therefore, the need for forward planning needs to be kept in mind in developing a new school.

The board of management and those in charge of working out the details of building a new school came to the conclusion that if they went ahead with the project for which they had received planning, in the not too distant future the school would not be of sufficient size to deal with the growing population and that it would not be possible to expand it further because the site would be surrounded on all sides. On one side it is bordered by the public road, while on all others it is bounded by housing. Therefore, they decided the school should move to a new site.It was therefore decided to move to a new site which was acquired with the assistance of the purchase of some land from a community development group, some land from the GAA and some land from a private source. As a result, there is a far better site on which it will be possible to accommodate good facilities adjoining the school. The problem is that the proposal has been submitted to the Department which must give consent for an application for planning permission on the site. It is in that context that I am asking the question this morning. The board of management is very concerned about the current state of the school where more than 70% of the accommodation is provided in prefabs. There are 350 students at the school and more than 50 staff members, which includes provision for children who need that extra support. It is important that we try to move on with the project at an early date.