Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome to the Chamber. I thank her for taking this Commencement matter. She will appreciate that it is quite a local issue, but one very close to her in Clonmel. The CBS High School in Clonmel is a wonderful school that provides education to secondary school boys in Clonmel. There are more than 700 students in the school, which is led by the principal, Karen Stenson, along with her staff. It has a brilliant reputation and is a fantastic school. The school has 700 students but does not have the capacity to manage them all, which is why, even before 2020, the school put in an application to the additional accommodation scheme. It was approved in February 2020. It is a huge project that involves almost €5 million in investment. It will deliver two special education teaching rooms, two science labs, a prep room, a design and communication graphics room, a home economics room, a textiles room, a mutlimedia room and two SEN classrooms, which is really important. It is a massive project.

The reason I have tabled the Commencement matter is because we have not seen any major movement on the project in the last four years. That is very frustrating for the school, the students, the staff and the parents. As a principal who has been doing very good work in the school over the last number of years, Karen has a responsibility to develop the school into a modern day facility that can meet the requirements of the 700 pupils there. An announcement was made in February 2020 that the new extension would be built in the school. At the moment, four years on, the project is still only at stage 2A, which is the cost plan stage of the project. The principal has been waiting on a decision on that since last June. From our perspective, as a Government we have invested very heavily in education, which has been really positive, but we need to deliver on that investment to actually see people working on the ground and the project being delivered. From the perspective of teachers and principals, when an announcement is made like this, students, parents and staff are excited to see a new modern section of the school being built. They all ask the principal when it is happening and why it is being delayed.She does not have any answers because the engagement with the Department can be quite difficult. You need to get lucky to get someone as a contact to deal with it in the Department. We need to speed up the process for this school. It is well over capacity at present and kids in the school need those facilities, especially in its special education section, which is very important to the Minister of State. They need those services and amenities as quickly as possible.