Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is more than welcome. It is great to see him here to discuss this issue. Laragh National School is a thriving school in west Cork. It was founded in 1967 and I would say at that time there were two teachers and 29 students. It has mushroomed into a really thriving school with seven teachers and more than 193 pupils. The principal’s name is John Lordan. The issue is the emergency works application that has been made. The application is for the pedestrian entrance, which also incorporates the emergency vehicle entrance to the lower part of the school. Significant works have been done to the surroundings of this school in the last 12 months. We have had engagements with Cork County Council to come on site. It did major works on footpaths, ramps and lining. It did a fantastic job of the outside area of the school. The council did that on the back of a really good report brought forward by the board of management. The board has been really proactive here. It brought consultants on board and got a safety audit. It has really worked with all the entities it possibly could to ensure the outside of the school has been made safe. However, the board is very disappointed because the first application it made for funding for safety works outside the school was rejected as it was a Cork County Council issue. That is what the board was told. It worked with the council then to ensure those works could be done and even paid a 10% contribution to the local authority to have them done. The only thing missing now is the vehicle access and pedestrian access at the lower side of that site, which is in the ownership of the school or the Department, depending on where you want to go. An emergency works application has now been made to make that safe. At the moment all the students are coming out one entrance, which is chaotic at times. It is well managed by the school, which has broken up school times and worked to ensure it is safe, but we must ensure this lower entrance is reopened and that the safety issue regarding vehicle access can be sorted. However, the application has been rejected.

The responses I have got for this have been somewhat chaotic. I will give an example. Last Friday I got an indication from the Department it had been refused. On Monday, 23 September I got a communiqué from the Minister saying it was still under review. Now I am under the impression it has been refused again, so I am not exactly sure where we are going with this application. What I do know is the Department has effectively washed its hands of this issue. We cannot have a school paying 10% of the works on the road to the local authority and then say it needs to do all the works inside the property. This is really important because these are safety works. It is the final piece of the jigsaw. This is a very proactive school with a very proactive principal and a board of management that has done such diligent work. They are frustrated. The problem we have is that this is a desktop study. The application is made online and nobody comes to meet the principal and chair of the board of management. I have met the principal and the chairperson on site to talk about these issues. At the very least the Department needs to negotiate and have conversations with the people who are trying to ensure this place is safe. I appeal for us to get movement here. We need to get answers to where this application is. Then we can get a pathway to delivering this final piece of the jigsaw and have safe access for the kids going to Laragh National School.