Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Acting Chair should have told me as I would have met him.

It is great to have the Minister of State in the Chamber. I am discussing the issue of Ballinspittle National School, one which I have continuously raised since I entered the Seanad. We have been looking for a new school since 2018 and the timelines are quite frightening. In June 2018, a design brief was approved for this and it has being going through different stages from stage 1, 2, 2A and 2B. Last year, we received information that it was going to tender in April 2023 but we have been trying to work out where we are since then. At the moment, we are looking at the bizarre scenario where we have children who came into junior infants who will not see the new school by the time it is finished due to the time it is taking to deliver this project. It started in 2018 and has worked all the way through.

It is a significant project involving 12 classrooms. There are special education rooms as well. There are only 200 students in this school and it has a very committed management team who work really hard to make sure the school provides great education in Ballinspittle. However, the real issue is the timeline and the time delays in particular.We have been looking for movement on this project since the new school was first mooted. There have been significant delays, including due to Covid and everything else in between. We are looking for an update on the tender process. This is my fourth time raising this national school in the Chamber. It is a really dynamic part of the world and it needs to get the educational campus that the majority of the villages around it have received in recent years. There have been significant school developments in recent years in places like Kilbrittain, Nohoval and, in particular, Kinsale, but, unfortunately, this village and parish have not seen any development, which they have been seeking for so long. The principal has done so much in respect of this matter.

I hope the Minister of State will give me an outline of where he thinks the tender process is and the timeline for a new school. My understanding was that the tender process should take six months and after that a new school would be delivered within a 20-month period on the campus. I realise that the build is very complicated because the work will happen while educational activities are ongoing. The construction process has been split. We need to get moving and to get a date and timeline for when the school will be delivered on the ground.