Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)

I thank the Cathaoirleach's office for choosing this Commencement debate. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is welcome. I am delighted to see a Minister of State actually from the Department of education taking an education Commencement debate.

I am here to raise the plans for a new school for Scoil Chaitríona junior and senior school in Renmore. I previously raised a similar Commencement matter in, I would say, 2020 and the then Minister, Norma Foley, attended and replied on behalf of the Department. Since then, progress has been made. The Taoiseach at the time and now Taoiseach again, Micheál Martin, went down to Renmore with the Minister, Deputy Foley, back in November 2021 to visit Scoil Chaitríona and to announce a large-scale school building project and the advancement of same under the ADAPT programme. I certainly welcomed that, but that was, as I said, in November 2021, and the school is still awaiting confirmation of progress for its much-needed school building.

Scoil Chaitríona is divided into a junior and a senior school, with nearly 400 pupils in each school. The building is nearly 50 years old and is showing signs of wear and tear like any school building of that age. Indeed, there was a collapse in one of the roofs of the building last year, which obviously impacted on the school. The school has a committed principal, staff and board of management who have advocated for the school for years, and there have been plans for a new school building for over 30 years.I have engaged with my colleague, Councillor Shane Forde, who is a hard-working councillor in the community and is originally from the area. A number of suggestions for a decant or temporary accommodation have been put forward by the school. One of the sites is opposite the Kingfisher in Renmore. Another is the old Corrib Great Southern Hotel site, and another is the building previously owned by Eircom on the old Monivea Road. These sites have been put forward but no one from the Department has come to examine them and look at the possibility, feasibility or practicality of whether these sites would be suitable for a temporary school building while a new school is being built on the existing site. That is the crux of the matter.

Progress has been made. In 2022 there was a further step in respect of a project manager being appointed. In June 2022 the Minister announced the tender process to appoint a project manager had been completed and that the first step for the project manager would be the tender competition for the appointment of a design team for a number of school building projects. Those projects were to include junior and senior schools for Scoil Chaitríona. The Minister stated the Department would shortly advise school authorities of further developments in respect of these appointments. That was in June 2022, under the ADAPT programme.

The school is in limbo. There is good news on one hand, in that redevelopment of the existing school is on the ADAPT plan, but before that can happen a temporary site for the school to move to in the interim must be found. Is there any update from the Department on the identification of that site? Will a representative of the Department visit the school to look at the options it is proposing, including the Corrib Great Southern Hotel and the old Eircom building?