Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

My question relates to Clonturk Community College on the Swords Road in Dublin 9. To give some background, this is a fantastic school which opened in 2016. In the short intervening period it has grown to 920 pupils and by next September, just eight years after opening, it will be a 1,000-pupil school. It is a great credit to the principal, the school staff and the entire school community that it is in such high demand. Indeed, it has been oversubscribed by about 2.5 times its intake capacity every year for the last number of years.

My question today relates to the master plan and the progress on a new school building for Clonturk Community College. Since 2020 there have been discussions between the Department of Education and the school about a new school building. A master plan was promised but three years on, there is still no sign of that plan from the Department. We have had announcements from the Department about the new school campus which is going to take in four schools in the area. That will all be brilliant when it is done but I must convey to the Minister of State that there is a growing frustration on the part of parents, the school management in particular, and the school community because of the growing logistical headaches they have to face because of the delays in making proper provision for the school.

The current school building was constructed in 1967. There are inadequate bathroom facilities and no indoor PE facilities. There is a substantial number of students who have additional needs but there are no proper facilities to meet those needs. There is no wheelchair access on site, no special classes and no rooms for the delivery of resource tuition. Everyone understands that we need to get this new campus right but I must ask about the Department's strategy with regard to this school. There has been a continuous delay in meeting the accommodation needs of the school. When the school has made applications, year after year, to try to accommodate its growing student population there have been delays, so much so that the transition year students actually had to spend last year up the road in a local GAA hall. That is not good enough for anybody in this country. The promised prefabs did arrive but they were a year late. It is this snail's pace response that very much characterises so much of the Department's approach to the project.

After the initial discussions in 2020, it took until February 2022 for the Minister for Education to commit to a master plan. Twenty months later, after all of the photos and announcements, the board of management was finally shown the design team brief but it has no dates for when the tender will open and the team will be appointed or when the school building project will start moving. There has been a lot of publicity this year surrounding school projects and the delays and hold ups because of a row between the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and the Department of Education.We need to hear from the Minister of State that the master plan will be complete and the tender will go out by the end of this year, the design team will be in place and that, effectively, there are firm dates for the school community in looking forward to their new school building. At the moment, they have a public road going through their school that needs to access the farm behind the school. As I said, there is substandard accommodation for those with additional needs and no proper sports or PE facilities. We need to see that put right. I look forward to the Minister of State’s response.