Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy McHugh, to the House.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is familiar with Moville community college, having visited it a number of times over the years. Last night, there was a large attendance of teachers, parents and students and there was great anger in the room at the delays that have been ongoing for years in delivering the new school buildings. The Minister will be aware that the existing prefab buildings are completely unacceptable. There are dilapidated conditions on the outside and leaks in the home economics room, for example. Facilities have been completely inadequate for a long time. Young people are crowded in together. The physical education, PE, facilities are utterly unacceptable by modern standards. There is no storage space. They can only avail of two of the approximately 18 options on the PE curriculum because of the limited capacity. The existing school building has substantial cracking throughout. I visited recently and could literally see from one room into the next through a horizontal crack going the whole way along the middle of the wall. They have an excuse for canteen facilities. They have to have caterers come in from outside to provide food on a bench. Toilets are closed. Kids are literally sitting down on the floor eating their food. This has been going on for years. The teachers and students and the principal have acted in good faith and have waited for these plans to proceed to construction phase. The prefabs in which they are teaching are Third World facilities. It was said last night that they provide a First World education in the school with fantastic teachers but that they have Third World facilities. This needs to come to an end. The Minister is a Donegal man and I hope and trust that he feels as strongly as I do. The anger in that room last night was palpable. We need to send a message from this Chamber today that the bureaucracy is coming to an end and that we will fast-track this project to planning and construction. We must end the period of the prefabs. We also need to give assurances that the serious structural issues within the existing building are going to be resolved and made safe as soon as possible.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue. I was briefed on the meeting last night and I want to put on record my apologies to the staff and students for not being in a position to go as I had a prior engagement that was arranged last October.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the current position regarding Moville community college, a building project that is critical in providing for the needs of the local community. Under the Project Ireland 2040 plan, Moville community college will be provided with 4,500 sq. m of new space through a stand-alone extension. This will allow for the expansion of the college to accommodate 550 pupils. The new extension will include 13 new classrooms, science labs, engineering and technology rooms, a new library, a general purpose room and dining facilities, as well as a PE hall with ancillary space and a 550 sq. m special needs base. Delivery of the project to which this matter relates has been devolved to Donegal Education and Training Board, DETB. under a service level agreement finalised in January 2017. While it has taken longer than expected to reach the current stage of development, I assure the House that DETB has been progressing the project as effectively and efficiently as possible and has been liaising with officials in the Department of Education and Skills, as appropriate. This was one of the first items discussed at the initial meeting with the building unit when I was appointed as Minister

The House may wish to know that, in accordance with its terms of engagement, DETB has served a notice of termination on the existing architect. No new appointment will be made until the notice of termination takes effect. In the meantime, work is continuing on the project with the remaining members of the design team. The project is currently at stage 2a - pre-planning design. DETB and its design team met my officials on 12 February in respect of that matter. A number of design issues were raised at said meeting and in correspondence with the DETB since. These are being addressed. I am satisfied that DETB will progress the project as quickly as possible with its new architect, once appointed. Once the issues to which I refer are addressed and a new architect is in place, approval will be given to DETB to lodge a planning application for the new extension. It is expected that a planning application will be lodged with Donegal County Council for the project in September or October. Subject to any issues arising during the planning process, the project can then be expected to proceed to tender.

Separately and independently as a stand-alone project, I am aware that a number of issues with the existing building have been brought to the attention of officials in the Department of Education and Skills by DETB officials. I am conscious that this is a cause of concern for the students, staff and parents of the school. However, I can assure the House that officials from the Department of Education and Skills have been in regular contact with DETB, which is working diligently to address these issues. In that regard, the Department has recently received two detailed reports on the matter from DETB. On foot of these, it has approved the completion of a number of surveys and some essential works to be carried out over the course of this summer. The outcome of those surveys will determine the further action required to address these issues.

In addition, DETB has been liaising with Departmental officials in respect of disability access issues, as well as the condition of the current prefab block of accommodation on site. On the latter, I am conscious that the existing prefab accommodation requires refurbishment. I am pleased to be able to inform the House that approval has recently been given for that refurbishment to take place to ensure that it provides for the needs of the school until the stand-alone extension is completed. The works on the existing building and the prefabs will take place under one contract during the summer, and delivery of these works is also devolved to DETB. I am aware from last night's meeting that there is a fear that this refurbishment work will not go far enough. I have asked my officials to provide me with photographic evidence of examples of where this work has been carried out before. I am happy to send those images on to the Senator, and he can share them with his contacts. I do not want to force a decision that the school is not going to accept. It has to buy into the project, and we should try to provide evidence of how good this work is. I am conscious that if we go for new prefabs, they will require planning permission and the project will be delayed even further, possibly until the following summer. I do not feel that is good enough. I have been in the school and in that home economics classroom. I share the concerns of the Senator. This is, and will remain, a priority for me.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein)
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As a former teacher, the Minister will be aware that the teachers in the school were very reluctant to move to the point of holding a public meeting. They have been patient and acted in good faith. They waited and waited before drawing public attention to the issues at the school. However, they ran out of patience and have lost much of their trust in the process. It is critical that the timeframe set out by the Minister is met. There was a lot of resistance to the idea of further refurbishment of the prefabs. Teachers had anticipated that there would be a replacement of the prefabs. If Department officials are insisting on that path, perhaps they would liaise with the teachers on the action committee to address the safety concerns they have about the prefabs in order to make matters as workable as possible while they await the new school building. The latter should be as practical as possible in order that the gaps identified by the teachers last night might be addressed.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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That is absolutely no problem. I agree with everything the Senator said. It is important to reassure members of the public in Inishowen, in particular in Moville, and the student body, that we will work together on this. I put in timeframes that I want to see met. I do not want to delve too much into the termination of the contract of the architect because it is not finalised yet but once that happens we will appoint a new architect. In the meantime the design team is still in place. It will continue its work and we will have a submission ready for planning. I am happy to keep the Senator posted at every stage.

I acknowledge the input of Mr. Paddy Kelly from the education and training board, ETB, whose expertise will be critical in ensuring we move forward on this. I also acknowledge the input of the local county councillors who have been working very hard on this issue, and I will keep them in the loop as well.

I acknowledge the frustration of the teachers in the staff room. I met them and we considered potential options. We discussed potentially replacing the prefabs and considered what would be the best option. The advice I got back is that in order to do an effective job in a tighter timeframe, what is required is not simply replacing a roof, rather the electrics will need to be done and a full refurbishment to ensure there are a proper safety standards in place in these prefabs for the students and the teachers.