Seanad debates
Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Schools Building Projects
1:00 pm
Vincent P Martin (Green Party)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, atá tagtha anseo inniu thar ceann an Aire Oideachais, an Teachta Norma Foley. Tá ceist an-mhór le plé. It is disappointing that the Minister, Deputy Foley, is unavoidably absent but the Minister of State is welcome to the Chamber to give her Department's response.
In 2017, the school community of Mercy Convent Primary School, Naas, learned the exciting news that the Department was proceeding to build a much-needed new school building. A state-of-the-art €9 million building was promised. This was to comprise 32 classrooms, a new staff room and a new assembly hall. One would think this was a dream come true. The works started in 2018 but unfortunately, following a number of building delays, unhappy differences arose between the construction firm and the Department in 2020 and work on the site ceased. The delays continue.
From the outside, the exterior of this new school building looks fantastic. The problem is that the interior works have not been completed. It is a mere shell and requires significant completion. We can be thankful that the building was rendered dry and free from any water ingress in 2021 but there is now an urgent need to implement the finishing contract.The Department's tender process has finally been done. On 18 January, the Department approved the construction firm it envisages should finish the job. I am given to understand that the next procedural step in this process is for the Department to issue its formal letter of intent, but when?
Morale and resilience in the school is remarkably high. School numbers are thriving. Support for the school from parents is unwavering, but the incredibly patient parents have asked me to urge the Department and to plead with the Department to get the job done once and for all. It is becoming the most expensive school of its size in the history of the State. Millions of euro continue to be spent each year on renting the temporary prefab modular building. It has been speculated that the avoidable losses and the ongoing costs in court to date would have built a number of schools. A further example of the fact that this is haemorrhaging moneys from the Exchequer is the fact that the annual security bill to secure this long-term unoccupied building alone is estimated to run to €350,000 per annum. When work suddenly ceased, many of the windows and doors that were to be fitted were left unprotected and they perished. The costs keep escalating.
Right now, though, the parents do not want to go down the road of a blame game. They simply want to get the job done. A harsh reality of construction is that disputes can sometimes arise and normally the legal contract entered into between the parties deliberately includes an arbitration clause. The main purpose of this is to arrive at a speedy - I emphasise the word “speedy” - resolution without recourse to litigation in the High Court or the Supreme Court. The loyal parents, the dedicated school principal and his heroic staff, the board of management, the taxpayers, the many past pupils, the local community and, especially, the school-going children deserve better. They are entitled to an explanation of this fiasco and to expect a strict timeframe to be put in place to get the job done.
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Martin for bringing this important issue to the floor of the Seanad and, indeed, for his detailed overview of the situation as it faces Mercy Convent Primary School in Naas, County Kildare. As the Senator has already alluded to, I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, who is unfortunately detained in other wider Government business. She has asked me to outline some of the details for the benefit of the House, all of which are more than familiar to Senator Martin.
The major building project for Mercy Convent Primary School is included in the Minister's departmental construction programme, which is being delivered under the national development plan. The entire project brief is the completion contract for a new 32-classroom school, with two classrooms for children with special needs and ancillary accommodation, together with all associated site works.
The design team's stage 2b confirmations on the completion of the prefabrication process were completed in March 2023, and the project commenced its tender stage at that point. Tenders were returned in July 2023. A tender report was received by the Department of Education in September 2023 and is currently under review. As the Senator has alluded to, a letter has been issued. Yet, as he knows, that is not the end of the process. The wider process will take 12 months to complete from the point of July 2023. The Senator asked for a concrete timeline, and I think we are very much in the endgame of the tender process. It is required to be completed by July at the very latest. I am sure the Senator knows as well as I do that it should be done much sooner, and it will be done much sooner. I cannot give him a precise date, but I can give him the broad finishing point.
When the approval to proceed with construction is issued, however, the design team estimates it will take approximately 15 months to complete the construction of this school, all-in. I very much hope that Senator Martin will not have to bring this issue to the floor of the Seanad again. I think we are in sight of having the tender process completely concluded. Thereafter, the 15-month period can get cracking as soon as possible.
I will endeavour to bring the comments the Senator made here this afternoon to the Minister, Deputy Foley, in a speedy manner. If any further follow-up is needed by letter, I will ensure it is passed on to the Senator’s office.
Vincent P Martin (Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response and for deputising for the Minister, Deputy Foley, who is unavoidably absent today. Many parents are tuned into Oireachtas TV and some are in the Gallery today. They are all speechless because of these inexcusable delays to date.The Minister of State's response lacks detail. It does not give the parents the concrete information or the concrete assurances that at this stage they deserve. The local Green Party councillor in Naas, Bob Quinn, is also a parent. They are all so justifiably frustrated. When will the fiasco end, when will the haemorrhaging of our Exchequer funds come to a conclusion and when will we get this job done? The schoolkids deserve better. The school has a beautiful, promising shell of a building. It has been lying idle for more than seven years and there is still no finishing post we can see such that we can say for sure when this will happen or bring this sorry saga to an end. It is a lovely building and the students deserve better.
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I fully understand the frustration, disappointment and abject anger that many in the school community feel at this stage. I have laid out where the rough timelines will lead us. One thing I will suggest to the Senator, and I myself will make a deputation to the Minister, is that it is perhaps time for a meeting organised by the Senator with the school community and the Minister directly. A deputation meeting at this stage would definitely be received warmly by the Minister, and I will do the utmost in my powers to ensure that happens.
Vincent P Martin (Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for urging the Minister, Deputy Foley, in that regard. It is much appreciated.