Garret Kelleher (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Ó Múineacháin, as teacht chuig an Teach inniu chun an t-ábhar tábhachtach seo a phlé.

As the Minister of State is aware, Scoil Eoin in Ballincollig is the oldest primary school in our rapidly expanding town and can trace its roots back to the establishment of a school on Station Road in 1862. It is a primary school that caters for the educational and developmental needs of boys in our community, and the school's principal and management team work in close co-operation with their counterparts in Scoil Mhuire Girls' National School, which is directly across the road from Scoil Eoin. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has long highlighted the lack of special education places available for both primary and secondary school pupils in the greater Ballincollig area, which now has a population exceeding 25,000 people.One of the unfortunate results of this is that local children often have to travel far from their homes to locations such as Cork city centre, Berrings, Farran, Kerry Pike or Macroom to attend school, often involving long bus or taxi journeys of up to 45 minutes. This is a significant additional burden on top of the difficulties and challenges being faced by these pupils each day. On two occasions, in 2013 and 2017, the school explored the possibility of providing autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classrooms but on both occasions felt it was not in a position to do so due to a lack of accommodation and space. In 2020, the NCSE, through its local special educational needs organiser, SENO, met the school principal and vice principal to discuss the possibility of providing ASD and special education classes. On that occasion, heartened by the positive and supportive stance of the NCSE and the SENO, the school's board of management decided that it did wish to express interest in providing the much-needed ASD classrooms.

In February 2021, the SENO informed school management that three ASD or special classes had been sanctioned by the NCSE. This was confirmed in correspondence from the Department of Education in April 2021. However, in September of the same year, the school received a follow-up email from the Department of Education stating that the Department’s technical team had completed an in-depth review of the site and had, unfortunately, determined it would not be possible to provide the requited accommodation on-site unless vast amounts of existing single-storey accommodation was demolished and replaced with two-storey accommodation. Further, the email stated the Department was not in a position to provide funding for the significant demolition of the school building.

Notwithstanding this setback, the NCSE reiterated its stance. An email dated January 2024 stated that the original sanction for the three autism classes, dated 2 February 2021, still stood due to the demand for the opening of special classes in the Ballincollig area. The knock-and-rebuild proposal remains the only viable option for Scoil Eoin to provide the much-needed ASD classroom spaces for the school and our community. The school has been frustrated by the lack of progress or information from the Department of Education since its meeting with the then Minister for Education in May 2024.

I was delighted, as was the school community, to hear the Minister of State's recent commitment, in response to a question put forward in the Dáil, to engaging with the school, for which the school is very grateful. Will he clarify the Department of Education's position so that Scoil Eoin can plan for its future with the certainty and support it deserves?