Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Sherlock, to the House.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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This matter pertains to Summercove national school, the school roll number of which is 18829J. In a nutshell, this is a very old school that was built in 1909 and in May 1998, its board of management made an application for a new school building on the advice of a senior official of the Office of Public Works, OPW, because it had outgrown its original purpose. On 7 December 1999, a report was made by a school inspector to the effect that the school should move to a new site. Subsequently, the then Minister for Education and Science, who I believe was Deputy Micheál Martin, indicated that a new school for Summercove, Kinsale, was a priority. In September 2004, the OPW placed a notice in the public press seeking a suitable site for a new school for Summercove. Various proposed sites were submitted and one such site was located directly across the road from the existing school.

However, the local landowner was not prepared to sell or dispose of that site. In March 2007, the individual put forward a proposal that he would sell a site at Summercove crossroads for the purpose of a new school. The site was examined by a senior architect from the Office of Public Works, OPW, who gave a favourable report on this issue. The then board of management submitted a planning application under planning reference 0711917 to Cork County Council. Unfortunately, in a decision made in December 2007, the county council refused the aforementioned outline application on the basis that the site at Summercove crossroads, Ardbrack, Kinsale, was not zoned for educational purposes. This was an absolute cop-out by the county council and a dereliction of its social duties to provide planning.

In April 2009, an Adjournment debate took place in the Seanad in which my former colleague, Deputy McCarthy, and I participated. I stated the school in question originally was built as a two-teacher school with a small number of pupils. However, over the past 25 years or more, the population of Summercove has increased and at present, 212 pupils attend the school. At the time of that debate, one of the school's prefabs was 26 years old and the Minister conceded it was the oldest prefab in Ireland. A second prefab was 20 years old, while a third was ten years old. The 26-year old prefab was subsequently replaced by the Department of Education and Skills. At that time, the Department had been paying rent of ¤53,000 per annum for prefabs and while I believe this may have been resolved subsequently, it indicates the ludicrous situation that was allowed to develop.

In 2011, the school's board of management had a meeting with the county manager to ascertain whether the planning process could be advanced and eventually, after two planning applications, the board of management in its frustration found it had come up against a brick wall. It had considerable difficulty in getting planning and despite numerous efforts by me in the past and by previous Ministers, this planning permission was not granted. I understand the existing Summercove school building was examined by departmental professionals from its technical section on Friday, 18 January 2013 and as a result, it appears as though the Minister now has decided to remove the construction of a new school for Summercove from the building priority list, while citing the fact that no planning permission exists.

Although I have no axe to grind with the Minister of State, I believe this again is a sort of cop-out because the need is so great. The Minister and his senior officials, in conjunction with those in the OPW who are trying to acquire the site, as well as officials of Cork County Council, should have worked together to provide or obtain a new site. I understand the farmer involved had offered two different options. Some of the grounds on which Cork County Council turned down the site were superfluous and not real or genuine. I will make this point carefully because I do not wish to point and have never pointed a derogatory finger at any official of Cork County Council, the OPW or the Department of Education and Skills. However, it appears to me and increasingly to the teachers in the school - who received an awful kick in the backside because of this decision - its management board, which has done tremendous hard work behind the scenes, the parents and more particularly the pupils, as though there has been collusion of sorts between all the various agencies. This school, which has developed rapidly, is a wonderful school and the Minister of State may not be aware it has the second highest academic record of any school in the whole of Munster, being 10% above the average. This is the reason that over the past 25 years, it has expanded from being a small school to one which probably now has ten or 12 teachers.

There has been an announcement concerning the possible construction of a new school in the heart of Kinsale, where there are issues with traffic problems. While I wish that project good luck, it would be wrong to ignore the plight of the pupils and teachers who are living in atrociously difficult conditions. I hope the Minister of State will have good news for me from the senior Minister in the Department, Deputy Quinn, that he will reverse the decision and instead of removing the project from the building list, he will redouble his efforts to ensure a site is obtained, planning permission is expedited and construction of the new school will be included in the new programme encompassing the period from 2013 to 2018. I would be highly upset to be obliged to return to my constituents, particularly the parents, children, hard-working teachers and those involved in the board of management, to state the plan, about which they were complaining to me in 2003, is now likely to go beyond 2020 with no hope of a resolution.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I am responding to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn.

I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to clarify the current position on a proposed new school building for Summercove national school. The school has applied to the Department for large-scale capital funding for a new school building. The school is currently located on a half acre site and an alternative greenfield site is required for a new school In the context of the co-operation by the Department of Education and Skills with local authorities in identifying suitable sites for schools, the Department has worked with both the Office of Public Works and the local authority over a number of years in an effort to identify suitable sites for the construction of permanent accommodation for the school.

The Senator might find it helpful if I set out the context within which decisions relating to meeting the demographic challenge facing the education system in the coming years are made. Total enrolment in both primary and post-primary schools is expected to grow by almost 70,000 by 2018 - more than 45,000 at primary level and 25,000 at post-primary level. To ensure that every child has access to a physical school place, it is vital that there is sufficient school accommodation available to cater for these pupil enrolments. The delivery of building projects to meet the increasing demographic demands will be the main focus for capital investment over the duration of the five-year plan, particularly in those areas where it has been identified that most demographic growth will be concentrated. In this regard, Kinsale has not been identified as an area of significant demographic growth. Pupil enrolment projections for Kinsale indicate that enrolments will remain relatively stable for the foreseeable future.

Officials from the Department's building unit met with Summercove school authorities in January 2013, as Senator O'Donovan explained, to explore the options that might be open to the school to improve its existing accommodation. Subsequently, a member of the Department's technical staff visited the school to examine the possibility of addressing the school's most urgent needs. However, the option of providing some permanent accommodation to replace the school's temporary accommodation and to address traffic management on the site does not appear possible due to the restricted nature of the site. The Department accepts therefore that a new site is required. However, given the need to meet demographic growth, the delivery of new schools, together with extension projects to meet future demand will be the main focus of the Department's budget for the coming years. In this regard, it is not possible to indicate at this point when a building project for the school will be progressed. I thank the Senator for allowing me the opportunity to outline the position.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I understand that the Minister of State is not the line Minister and I do not want to wag the finger of blame at him. However, I wish to express my deep dissatisfaction at what has happened in Kinsale, in particular in Summercove, because whatever about demographics the school was identified as early as 1999 as being deserving of a new school which had been fought for at the time. I referred to the fact that certain delays arose in the meantime due to planning and other issues. I do not put all the blame at the doorstep of the Minister. It is not good enough for the 212 children who are being schooled in third-world accommodation and the teachers who have to deal with the situation on a daily basis. Usually I would get some satisfaction from a response but that is not the case today. I do not attribute any blame to the Minister of State but the response is not good enough and it will not be tolerated by the teachers, pupils, parents and those in the community who have looked forward to a new school for the bones of 20 years. It is a huge knock-back for them. There does not appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, has overlooked the serious, specific and special needs of Summercove for the past 15 to 20 years.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I appreciate where Senator O?Donovan is coming from.

It does me no good to say that a school in my own county cannot have a definitive timeframe for the provision of a new school. The Government is faced with Hobson's choice at the moment because demographics do come into play. We are now faced with a situation in this country where there are pockets in metropolitan and urban areas where school places will not be available in the future. One must make provision in constrained economic times to allow for the necessity of people to be able to go to school. That is the Hobson?s choice that faces us.

I am willing to speak to the Minister, Deputy Quinn, about the issue again. I am aware of the history of the case, dating back to 1999, and some of the difficulties that arose between some of the State agencies involved. It is not possible at this stage to state exactly when a new school will be built. One could argue that we are putting it on the long finger. I accept the point that has been made against the Government but it must prioritise those areas where school places will not be available and make provision for them.