Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious that there has been much debate in recent weeks about the return to school for students.Yesterday the Taoiseach again stressed that the return is a priority and that within that phased return there is a priority for students with special needs. For many students, it is not just a question of when they will return but to what they will return. The facilities in a number of these schools are not fit for purpose.

One such school featured in a special report in The Irish Timeson Friday - the Stepping Stones School at Kilcloon, Co Meath. In it, the principal, Dolores Cullinane, set out a number of the deficiencies in the school. When it was established in 2005, Portakabins were used as a short-term measure but it is now seriously deficient. The Department's building unit had conducted a technical report prior to Christmas on the future of this school. However, there is still no update from the Department on where matters stand. I am pressing that we have this particular school's requirements addressed.

St. Mary's Special School in Navan, established in 1961, has almost 100 students. It has been waiting ten years since it was sanctioned for a new building in 2011. I raised this by way of a Commencement matter prior to Christmas. Again, this is with the building unit in the Department and we have seen no progress. It frustrated me no end that over the Christmas period I saw a planning permission extension notice going through Meath County Council for this particular school. Such has been the delay, it requires an extension on the planning permission already granted.

The report in last Friday's The Irish Timeshighlighted quite clearly that while people are anxious to see students with special needs return to their schools, the broader question is that in a large number of areas the school buildings are quite frankly disgusting and not fit for purpose. We need to see the Department's building unit treat these facilities with the same urgency that the Government is treating the return to school in order that they actually have proper facilities to go back to in the first place.