Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I seek an update from the Minister for Education on a date for the awarding of the tender for the construction of a new building for Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, which is currently located in temporary facilities on Parnell Square East. Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire is an amazing small school, right in the heart of Dublin Central. It is at the top of O'Connell Street, just across the road from the Gate Hotel. It has been in that temporary accommodation for far too long, at nearly two decades and an eye-watering cost of more than €250,000 a year. None of us are getting any younger. I feel like I am getting very old with this story. Since I was first elected, I have supported Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire. As a city councillor, I supported the transfer of land on Dominick Street to allow for the building of a new school.

Initially, it was conceived as an eight-classroom school. Due to the demand for the school, which is a wonderful, small, friendly, co-educational Gaelscoil, with a positive, healthy, inclusive environment, it has been upgraded to a 16-classroom school. After the Government was formed, the Minister for Education, Deputy Norma Foley, made herself available to meet the school, both virtually during Covid and also in visits to the school. She is the first Minister for Education to visit the school despite the fact that this school is only a stone's throw from the Department of Education. It is right in the heart of our capital city and has been in temporary accommodation for almost two decades.

The school building went to tender, thanks again to the support from the Minister. Those tenders were responded to and submitted. I understand that after the tenders were submitted, the successful tender was selected and has been sent to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. My heart sank when I heard that the project is now on hold. It is on hold in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and it is a spending issue.

Spending and costs come in many different forms. There is the cost of a lack of quality of life and a loss of education. There is the cost of a loss of vibrancy in our core city centre. There is a cost to the children, the teachers and the parents. To give the Minister a perspective, the principal of the school attended the school as a pupil. It should be kept in mind that it is a primary school. He went on to secondary school and to university. He has now returned as the principal and he has been the principal for a number of years. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform has a job to do, which I respect. It has to look after and ensure that all public spending is done appropriately but it needs to examine the cost of the delays that its public procurement process causes, including the cost of construction inflation, the cost of a loss of educational opportunity and the cost of a loss of regeneration of our inner city. I hope the Minister of State has come to the House with a positive update and a date for the awarding of the tender for the construction of a new school on Dominick Street and a commencement date for the construction.