Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Dolan for raising the matter, which she raised previously. It is a major building project that is planned for Scoil an Chroí Naofa, and there is also the major building project for St Teresa's Special School. I will deal with Scoil an Chroí Naofa first.

As the Senator is aware, it is included in the Department's construction programme, which is being delivered under the national development plan. The brief is to provide for the demolition of the existing school building and the construction of a new school building to include 16 general classrooms, with 13 special resource rooms, two speech and language resource rooms and a two-room special educational needs, SEN, unit. Senator Dolan mentioned that there has been considerable delay. I agree that has been the case. There has been back and forth between the local authority and many different stakeholders regarding the matter, which has been less than satisfactory. However, some of the questions were legitimate and had to be answered. I note that there is a review of the specifications for the provision of the extra three classrooms currently with the Department. Once the review is complete, comments will issue to the board of management and its design team in order that we can bring the project forward. It is unfortunate sometimes that with the best will in the world these things can be delayed. It is going to take everybody to come together to try to resolve all of the issues.

The Department is in communication with the school authorities and its design team and is committed to assisting the school in every way it possibly can. We want to make sure that children have access to a proper building in order that they can learn the various curriculums they need to learn in a satisfactory way. I understand that the design team has been asked to review all of the plans it has been given. Until planning permission is secured, it will not be possible to give a timeline for the project proceeding to tender stage. The planning and building unit is under the remit of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, but she will be aware of the fact that this issue has been raised in the Seanad today. The Department will be aware that Senator Dolan has tabled this matter for discussion in a Commencement debate. That will concentrate minds in terms of delivering on this project.

I visited St. Teresa's Special School with Senator Dolan. It is a wonderful school environment with a wonderful principal in Anita O'Reilly and her incredible team. It was a very special day when we were able to announce the fact that the school would be moving.It will be a brand new, eight classroom special school with significant ancillary accommodation on a greenfield site. At the moment it is providing for 36 pupils. It will probably be in a position to expand. At present it is in temporary accommodation in two temporary classrooms to deal with immediate needs. The Department is in communication with school authorities around the appointment of a design team and a progression of the project into architectural planning. I understand it is at an advanced stage of the conveyancing process, which is positive. It is moving, albeit that it sounds slowly, but there is always a process when talking about conveyancing. The i's need to be dotted and the t's crossed. It is happening incrementally. As Minister of State with responsibility for special education I have asked the building and planning unit to make sure that this is expedited as soon as possible because obviously our children with additional needs who are most vulnerable are in less than satisfactory conditions at the moment and we want to make sure that they are rehoused in a more satisfactory way.