Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I welcome my colleague, the Minister of State, to the Chamber. This morning I am asking for an update from the Minister of Education on timelines associated with the employment of a design team and the preparation of plans for the proposed new build for Summercove NS in Kinsale. The last decade or more has seen significant development of how we fund our education infrastructure. The days of prefabs in every school has moved on. Many schools in my part of the country have seen really significant development and that should be acknowledged. In Kinsale, in particular, there have been extensions to the community school, and the Gaelscoil, after a long debacle, has got a site. However, there is one anomaly in Kinsale, namely Summercover NS. It is a busy, thriving national school and a significant part of our community. In recent decades it has been striving to secure redevelopment. There was a range of issues including one with a site and with planning. I am pleased to see a site has been purchased and the trustees of the diocese have moved into the space and completed the transfer of the site. Now we need the Department of Education to step up and allocate the resources to provide a design team that can lodge planning permission. That design team needs to look at the new site being proposed and lodge planning permission as soon as we can for the pupils, teachers, the board of management and principal who is leaving on 22 October. They have done so much to make sure this site was available. Now we need to progress with the Department to make sure we build this new school in Summercove. Kinsale is a thriving town and the population figures from the census of 2016 are totally out of date because the development we have seen there in the past five to six years has been amazing. Therefore, the need for educational infrastructure on the ground is much warranted. I hope we can prioritise this project and put a design team in place and then move forward with the planning because we need to provide this school for this industrious part of Cork. The students, parents and board of management have done so much in recent decades to bring this site to fruition.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter and I will specifically raise it with the Minister for Education. Summercove National School is a Catholic co-educational primary school under the patronage of the Bishop of Cork and Ross. In September 2020, the school had an enrolment of 223 pupils with a staffing of a principal, eight mainstream class teachers and three special education teaching posts. It is the Department’s intention to progress the construction of a new school building for the school as part of the school building programme and to underwrite the community of Kinsale, which the Senator mentioned.

The Department has a large-scale and ambitious roll-out of school building projects under the national development plan, NDP, and as part of Project Ireland 2040. The continuation of construction work on school building projects during the lockdown period in early 2021 was an important enabler to facilitate the delivery of our school building programme. During the NDP period of 2018 to 2020, there were 526 projects completed under the large-scale capital programme and the additional school accommodation scheme. These projects delivered in excess of 48,000 school places, including permanent accommodation for 229 special classes and additional capacity for 67 classrooms in 14 special schools throughout the country. There are also some 250 school building projects on-site, many of which will be completed in 2022.

The patron of Summercove National School has recently acquired a 1 ha greenfield site for the construction of the school, subject to planning permission being obtained. It is intended that the school building will provide capacity for eight classrooms, ancillary accommodation and a two-classroom special education needs base. The Department is finalising the accommodation brief for the project, which is part of the preparatory work associated with the architectural planning process. This includes the procurement of a design team. The Department will be in further contact with the school authorities as the project progresses to the next stage. Once the design team has been appointed, there are standard procedures to be followed in the progression of the project through preliminary design, detailed design, planning permission and then ultimately proceeding to tender and construction.

The Senator has alluded to the work he is doing with the community and I know he has been raising this within the Department of Education. I will also raise that community aspect because it is an exciting project to get on the road from the point of view of the principal, board of management, students and wider community. There is a strong commitment from the Department, as the Senator can see, but there are processes that have to be embarked on, right through to the planning permission stage and hopefully we will get on-site in due course.

Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his acknowledgement in the debate. The amount of work being done locally to secure the site has been amazing. This is an issue that has been going on for decades and the acquisition of this site is a major step forward. I am delighted that the Department will prioritise this and make sure it will work with the board of management and the people on the ground to make sure we can deliver the site and school for Summercove National School. It is a community project and that is what I want to emphasise. I thank the Minister of State for his contribution and I will be raising this again to make sure the timelines do not have any slippage.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator again for raising this important issue on behalf of the community in Kinsale. I will raise it with the Minister for Education and outline to her the key priorities the community has in order to try to get this school progressed as quickly as possible. The Senator has put forward a strong case in connection with it and we need to ensure we have a good, strong and new school to underwrite the community there and support it into the future. We will do our best to unlock that for the Senator.