Seanad debates
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Schools Building Projects
2:30 pm
Neale Richmond (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I will try to be as swift as possible. The issue I am raising today goes back to a meeting in 2009, shortly after I had been elected to the council for the first time, in what was then the Bewley's Hotel in Leopardstown. A commitment was made to bring an Educate Together school to the Ballinteer-Stepaside area. Exactly ten years later, we now have two national schools and a secondary school, only one of which is in a full-time permanent building. I am delighted that a site has been secured for Stepaside Educate Together secondary school but the big news of the last few weeks has been An Bord Pleanála's decision to grant permission for a permanent home for Ballinteer Educate Together national school. The Minister of State is the fifth Minister with whom I have brought this up over the past three and a half years in the Seanad. The fact that the project has moved on from the planning stage is a huge push forward but, needless to say, the entire school community including the parents, the pupils, the teachers, and everyone else connected to it have quite a simple question: what comes next and when? What actions are being taken by the Department to jump on the opportunity presented by this positive planning decision, to get tender documents together and to roll out a timeline? This is progressing in conjunction with the provision of a new physical education hall for St. Tiernan's community school, which will be adjacent to the site. The real question is quite simple. When can the pupils, teachers, and parents of Ballinteer Educate Together national school expect children and teachers to go into their new permanent home?
Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I thank Senator Richmond for raising this very important issue as it allows me the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the current position with regard to the provision of a permanent school building for Ballinteer Educate Together national school. This school is a co-educational school under the patronage of Educate Together. The brief for the permanent project is to provide a new, 16-classroom school in addition to a two-classroom special educational needs unit together with all ancillary accommodation on the St. Tiernan’s community school site located at Parkvale, Balally, Dublin 16. This project was assigned to the Department's design and build delivery programme in March 2018. This delivery programme uses a professional external project manager to progress the project through the relevant stages of architectural planning and construction.Architectural planning commenced immediately and an application for planning permission was lodged with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in September 2018 following pre-planning meetings with the council. A notification of the decision to refuse permission was received on 2 November 2018. The Department appealed this decision to An Bord Pleanála on 27 November 2018. On 7 June 2019, An Bord Pleanála granted permission for the development subject to a number of conditions. Officials from the Department are reviewing these conditions and consulting their advisers and their technical team to comply fully with the planning permission. The next step in the progression of this school building project is to proceed to the tender and construction stages.
Neale Richmond (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I appreciate the Minister of State's response. I have a specific question. What is the timeline for the tender and construction stages? If the Minister of State is unable to go into the specifics of this school's application, he might be able to give a general overview of what parents and teachers can expect and what the rough timeline will be. As I have said, this project has been going on for ten years. It got caught up in the planning process. This was beyond the control of the Department of Education and Skills. Now that we have broken free from that process, there is an absolute need to push ahead with the project as quickly as possible so that the needs of this ever-growing community can be met.
Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I understand the Senator's total frustration, given that he has been talking about this project for ten years. That is the bad news. The good news is that the project has overcome its most recent hurdle. We are now at the tender and construction stages. I will come back to the Senator with a more detailed response from the Minister, Deputy McHugh, on behalf of whom I am taking this debate. I sympathise with the Senator's point because of my experience with the cystic fibrosis unit at Beaumont Hospital. I thought it was bad when it took three years to get through the different processes in that case. I am taken aback to hear today about a ten-year wait. I believe there have been major planning problems in the case the Senator is raising. I know from my own experience that after a project proceeds to the tender and construction stages, it generally takes six months to a year. That is what I would think. I would prefer to come back to the Senator with a proper detailed answer from the Minister, Deputy McHugh.