Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am here today to raise the circumstances of a school that has been incredibly patient with the Department of Education. If this was an exercise in doing everything by the book, with the expectation and trust that based on need alone the Department would deliver then I am afraid it has failed. A request for emergency works to fix a roof that now has more than 101 roof leaks and defects was submitted to the Department in September 2022.Multiple surveys have been carried out. There was a visit by the Department of Education architect in April 2023. I have been raising the issues relating to the school in this House since last May and representations have been made to both the former Taoiseach's office and the former Minister of State with responsibility for special education. Back in October, I raised the condition of the school's roof directly with the Minister for Education in person and was assured it was being dealt with. It is not that there has not been any communication but we seem have been going around in circles for a long time without any clear pathway for the school.

In November, the Department of Education agreed to conduct a full roof examination but then refused the quote that was provided to it, even though the company in question has been used frequently by the Department. The feedback we got was that the Department believed the quote was from a roofing company rather than an independent roof leak detection specialist. That administrative error was only uncovered when the former Taoiseach got involved. We have children and teachers sharing their classrooms with buckets of water. During the summer, 40 l fell through the roof of one classroom in a week.

This is a health and safety issue. The funding has been applied for under emergency works - the clue is in the name - and the roof needs a full and total roof replacement, not repair. In addition to the roof, the school has submitted an emergency works scheme application to replace a heating system that has stopped working. It is a 25-year old boiler. The pipework that is used to supply the school with hot water is not working either. The gas and electric heaters and the lack of insulation has been and is costing the school an absolute fortune. There are so many other things on which the school would like to spend money. Members can imagine how cold it gets for the staff and the kids during the winter. They will excuse the pun, but that is the tip of the iceberg of the problems with the building. However, these are the short-term health and safety issues of the highest priority that need to be addressed. The roof needs to be replaced and the heating system fixed but in the long term it is very clear that what is needed is a new school building. Work was done on that back in 2018 but it has not progressed. An additional budget amount has been allocated to the Department of Education. There was a supplementary budget of €405 million recently, with €205 million before Christmas. I respectfully ask that this matter be made an absolute priority.