Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. It is great to see him here.

I wish to raise the plight of a school that is perhaps the school furthest away from this complex, namely, the Beara Community School in Castletownbere. Its location is very peripheral. It is right on the coast. Its catchment includes not only the town of Castletownbere but also the surrounding villages from Eyries to Ardgroom and Adrigole. It is the centre of secondary education on the Beara Peninsula.

The school has a major plight. It is trying to supply special education on the school complex. I acknowledge that an application has been lodged by the Beara Community School for an important single-storey special education unit and associated works. That application has been submitted. It is important. We are concerned with the timeline involved. The pre-planning proposals with regard to this project dragged on for years.Now it has gone for planning permission. I spoke to parents over the weekend and last night when I was in Glengarriff. They are genuinely concerned about the length of time it will take to deliver the proposal. A significant number of steps have to be taken. Design detail, specifications and a bill of quantities have to be set out. Tender documents have to be produced and a tender process has to be completed. Following that, the unit has to be constructed and fitted out. That will take a considerable period of time. There is a need for the facilities in September when children will be going to Beara Community School without a dedicated unit for special needs. That is not good enough in this day and age. What we need to see here is a two-pronged approach. First, a special needs unit must be put in place on a temporary basis immediately. The school needs the support of the Department to deliver it. It is most important that happens between now and September for the children who will be going to the school. The school does phenomenally well. It is a wonderful organisation and it is coping really well but, unfortunately, it does not have the building it requires. Second, we must see the proposals in respect of the construction, tendering process and the bill of quantities fast-tracked. Otherwise, given the length of time the pre-planning stage took, it could take years for the unit to be built. I must stress that geographically, Castletownbere and the Beara peninsula are as far away as one can possibly get from Dublin. A special approach needs to be taken for this school. The children in the area have no other option. They cannot go to the next nearest school. The next nearest school is probably in Kenmare in County Kerry or towards Bantry on the other side. We are not talking about a distance of 3 or 4 miles. We are talking about a distance of 50, 60 or 70 miles. The geographical issue here cannot be underestimated. A different approach must be taken to ensure this educational needs unit is delivered in a very short space of time. I ask the Government to seriously rethink how these strategic units are planned going forward so that children are not left in a situation, such as the one I am fearful they will face in September, whereby they are going to a school with no dedicated special needs unit.