Neale Richmond (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I congratulate her on her new brief. Having served with her on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council many years ago, I am well aware of her passion for education. I wish her well. We enjoyed a reception in UCD last night where she more than held her own. Anyone who thinks they will have it easy with her will be surprised. Indeed, I will bear that in mind as I make my contribution.

When I was thinking about what I would say, I decided to download the speech I made seven weeks ago on this issue when the Minister for Education and Skills was present. I regret that little has changed since then and that is why I was moved to table this Commencement matter again as we reach the final week of the year in Ballinteer Educate Together national school. Classes are breaking up today, if they did not do so yesterday. The case history, with which the Minister of State will be familiar, is long. I attended the first meeting in 2010 when it was decided that an Educate Together school was needed in the greater Ballinteer-Stepaside area. We now have two schools, which are bursting at the seams and which have long waiting lists. One school set up in Stepaside has thankfully moved into excellent accommodation being built by the Department beside Belarmine estate. However, Ballinteer Educate Together national school is in limbo. Unfortunately, I regret that its situation is not being helped by the intransigence of the Department and its silence on many issues relating to parents, teachers and the wider school community. The numbers involved in this school are increasing exponentially. It is, however, a positive school.

A letter writing campaign was initiated in September. There was another in May and again a few weeks ago. The first two campaigns resulted in more than 500 letters to the Department. The responses received were minor. I appreciate the Minister's hands are tied on this in certain respects but one or two acknowledgements do not provide answers or relief. They just increase the frustration. I will give credit to the new Taoiseach. When he was contacted earlier this month, his rapid response was welcome, even though he left the detail to the Department.

Ultimately, the school is coping with two key issues. There is no end to the planning delays on the site agreed for the permanent school, which is beside St. Tiernan's, a school I know well as a former member of the board of management. Access issues need to be resolved and parents need to be reassured that the Department is 100% committed to new permanent accommodation for Ballinteer Educate Together national school on the St. Tiernan's site with good agreed access points and all the facilities a modern, progressive, growing school in a populous area requires, which marry well with the needs of the excellent secondary school.

The interim solution is to move the school, which will provide 11 classes in September, en masseto the Notre Dame campus where it will collocate with the new Gaelscoil that is moving from Clonskeagh and the remnants of Notre Dame secondary school as it eases out of existence. That is an unfortunate event but there is nothing we could do as public representatives. There is huge concern among school management and the principal that they do not know what they are moving into in September. They had one or two welcome meetings on-site with departmental officials. I have eight pages of questions that were put to them, which have yet to be answered. When the intention is to move an entire school to a new facility in such a short time, that adds to the stress and concern and it puts work on people whose job it is not to do this.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it gives me an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the current position on the temporary and permanent accommodation for Ballinteer Educate Together national school. The school is located in temporary accommodation at St Tiernan's community school, Balally, Dublin 14. The school currently has nine mainstream classes, which will increase to 11 mainstream classes in September 2017. As the Senator will be aware, my Department recently completed the purchase of the Notre Dame campus located on Churchtown Road, Dublin 14. The campus will be used to facilitate temporary accommodation for the Ballinteer school from September 2017, pending completion of the permanent accommodation for the school at the St. Tiernan's site. The Notre Dame campus will also facilitate the permanent accommodation for Gaelscoil na Fuinseoige.A technical assessment was carried out by my Department in order to accommodate the schools concerned as well as the phasing out of the post-primary school on this campus. It is clear that there is sufficient accommodation on the campus for all schools. Following completion of the technical assessment, the Department of Education and Skills outlined its proposals for the accommodation of the three schools on the Notre Dame campus and for the most part this was positively received by patron representatives and the school principals. The Department is examining some issues which have been raised following this meeting and will be in touch with the schools again this week in this regard.

I know that there is a long history with this. In December 2012, as Senator Richmond is aware, outline planning permission to provide a permanent school building for Ballinteer Educate Together national school was submitted to the relevant local authority but was refused on the grounds of site access. This was appealed by my Department to An Bord Pleanála but subsequently withdrawn to facilitate submission to the local authority of an amended outline planning permission in 2013, which was also refused on similar grounds. This decision was appealed by the Department of Education and Skills to An Bord Pleanála but was refused. However, the board considered that the matter of assessing alternative means of accessing these lands would benefit from a co-ordinated approach by my Department and the planning authority in the interests of achieving a comprehensive and balanced solution to ongoing access issues on this educational campus.

As the Senator will appreciate, this is a complex planning issue and my Department has approached and met with all of the relevant parties including the council, the schools and third-party landowners with a view to finding an acceptable solution to the access issue. All aspects are being progressed in close liaison with the local authority and it is imperative that all of this work is done to the satisfaction of the council in order to ensure that a third planning application is successful. I assure the Senator that my Department is fully committed to bringing this project to a satisfactory conclusion as soon as the planning issues have been resolved.

Neale Richmond (Fine Gael)
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I am grateful to the Minister of State for taking the time to respond on this matter. I am enthused. It is good to hear such firm commitment from the Department that it remains committed to the long-term location of Ballinteer Educate Together national school at St. Tiernan's. It is an excellent site and will make such a difference, not just to the lives of the pupils but also to the community at large. I would ask two things of the Department and would appreciate if the Minister of State could feed them back. First, that the many letters that were sent nearly a month ago would receive replies. I have seen the three questions asked and could answer them myself. It probably would not be the answers that the people writing would want. To let them go unanswered with one or two acknowledgements of receipt sent out every so often is not good enough in this era, when we expect a level of responsibility from the organs of government.

Second, I encourage the Minister of State to put pressure on the officials in her Department to work very closely with the principal in question. A lot of responsibility and extra pressure has been put on one individual, supported by excellent volunteers, during her holiday break to put in place an entire school in a new location in a very short period. The principal needs a lot more than occasional meetings and one or two kind words. She needs a lot of help.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I will give Senator Richmond a commitment that the letters will be replied to by Department officials. I am very understanding of the work that the principal is going to have to do during the summer. I did a number of projects myself as a school principal. I can only imagine the logistics involved in moving classrooms and all the possessions of a school. I will ask and make sure that our officials are working closely with the principal. We will also keep the pressure on to make sure that we get the planning permission for that site at St. Tiernan's school. I am aware that the Senator has raised this matter a number of times and has asked me for advice in my other role as to how it can be done. He has been on this project for a number of years.