Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, to the House and invite Senator Eugene Murphy to raise the first Commencement matter.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Fearaim céad míle fáilte roimh na daltaí agus a múinteoirí as Cill Dara. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to the House. The Minister of State was always very strong on educational matters. The matter I raise this morning relates to St. Teresa's Special School in Ballinasloe, County Galway. Last November we were very proud that the Taoiseach, the Minister for Education and others came to Ballinasloe and gave the go-ahead for a new school for St. Teresa's. St. Teresa's has been based at the enterprise centre in Ballinasloe on Creagh Road for a number of years. It is very cramped. It is very hard for them to do their daily work.

It is a special school with 36 enrolled, all of whom have special needs. Indeed, in September 2022 another class will be added to the school. It was a great day and a great announcement. This morning I want to find out from the Minister of State and the Department where it stands. It was great news when the announcement was made in Ballinasloe.There were great celebrations in Ballinasloe but it is very important that we now move the project forward. There are 16 special needs assistants at the school. There are also nine teachers, one care assistant, one nurse and nine bus escorts. The school is under the patronage of Ability West. I compliment Anita O'Reilly, who is the principal. She does Trojan work, as do all the staff. They are committed to the students. They give more than their daily hours to the job to ensure all of the students and their parents and families are looked after. The announcement of the new school was unbelievable news for them. I am sure the Minister of State has an update for me. I hope he has some good news on the project because it is very important that it moves ahead as quickly as possible.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the schoolchildren in the Gallery, who are accompanied by our colleague, Senator O'Loughlin, who is the leader of the Council of Europe delegation from Ireland.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Murphy for raising this matter and for his ongoing strong representation and lobbying for St. Teresa's Special School. I will outline to the Seanad the current position on this major building project. It is included in the Department's construction programme, which is being delivered under the national development plan as part of the Project Ireland 2040 framework. Under Project Ireland 2040, the education sector will receive approximately €4.4 billion capital investment up to 2025. This will allow the Department to move ahead with projects such as St. Teresa's Special School. This investment will build on the good progress being made throughout the country to cater for demographic changes and provision for children with special educational needs. The investment will also facilitate an increased focus on the modernisation of existing school stock and help transition the school system for an era of net zero carbon by 2050.

The Senator is aware of the extensive site identification and assessment exercise, as he was in constant contact with the Minister during that time. This was to identify a permanent site location for St. Teresa's Special School. The Minister can confirm that agreement in principle has been reached with the vendor on a 4 acre site at Parkmore, Creagh, Ballinasloe, for the provision of the permanent accommodation for the school and the legal work is at an advanced stage. The major building project for St. Teresa's Special School will be delivered under the Department's accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering, ADAPT, programme. The ADAPT programme uses a professional external project manager to co-ordinate and drive the design team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project.

The tender process to appoint a project manager has just been completed. The first step to be undertaken by the project manager will be the tender competitions for the appointment of design teams for a number of school building projects. This will include the appointment of the design team for the St. Teresa's Special School project. The Department will shortly be in touch with the school authorities about further developments on these appointments. Upon appointment, the design team will proceed to stage one of the architectural planning, which is preliminary design, and in which the design team will assess the site and prepare initial sketch schemes. The brief for this project is the construction of a new eight-classroom special school with significant associated ancillary accommodation on a greenfield site. The school has an enrolment of 36 pupils and a staffing of principal plus six special classes. The Department also approved additional interim accommodation of two temporary classrooms for the school in 2021 to cater for immediate needs.

I thank Senator Murphy. I know from sitting in parliamentary party meetings and speaking to the Minister, Deputy Foley, he has been incessant in speaking about this project and the need for it. Much credit goes to Senator Murphy for pushing the project through the stages and to the Government's commitment to special education, which is very important for all of us.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. His response is quite positive and I am delighted with it. The Minister of State mentioned the temporary classrooms which were put in place in the not-too-distant past. The school principal is very happy with that accommodation for now. As the Minister of State said, it is on the move and it is most important that things are happening. As the Minister of State said in his reply, contact will be made with the school in the coming weeks, I hope in the next month or two, to proceed further with the project. It is very important. I cannot stress enough the commitment and dedication of the principal and teachers. They put in a huge amount of work. The children are very well looked after. They days can be difficult with 36 children all with special needs. We can appreciate this. All of the staff work together to make the days better for the children and their families. As the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Senator Garvey and the Minister of State know, the Government is dedicated to looking after the needs of such children. I welcome this very much. It is long overdue and it is happening now.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Chathaoirleach. Tá a fhios againn go léir gur ceart bunreachtúil ceart an bhunoideachais sa tír seo agus is ceart an-thábhachtach é sin. Tagann sé díreach ón mBunreacht agus caithfear an ceart sin a chur i bhfeidhm do gach páiste sa tír seo. Ní féidir le haon pháiste a bheith fágtha ar lár maidir leis. I thank Senator Murphy for his commitment to this and I also thank the Department of Education. This is happening and it is going through the normal stages. There is money behind it. It can happen and will happen. Senator Murphy is speaking about the constitutional right to education. As a Fianna Fáil Minister of State I am very proud that it was put in our Constitution in very dark days in the late 1930s. There is a constitutional right to primary education. Everything we do, particularly with regard to primary education, needs to be with this constitutional right in mind. It is a very important constitutional right. It is the only socioeconomic right that is clear-cut and specifically written into the Constitution. Everything we do should be focused on it. The success of the State, and the State has been remarkably economically and socially successful since independence, has been down to our focus on education. Of course it is an ancient Irish trait. We have always been focused on education and learning. We have really put it into practice since independence. This constitutional right and this success must be spread to every child, including the children in Ballinasloe about whom Senator Murphy has spoken.