Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, on behalf of the Department of Education, I thank Senator Lombard for raising this very important issue of Beara Community School and the surrounding community. The Department will work with the school and the Senator in order to try to find a timely solution. Naturally, it is important that the planning is granted and the hopefully we be able to fast-track all the other stages.

It is also important that we have access to temporary accommodation if that is deemed appropriate. I think the school is happy to go down that route as well. This would, however, be a twin-track approach to have some temporary immediate accommodation as well as a full commitment to fast-tracking and delivering the permanent accommodation as quickly as possible. Again, I thank the Senator for raising the issue. I will bring his concerns back to the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and Minister, Deputy Foley, directly.