Seanad debates
Wednesday, 7 February 2024
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
School Accommodation
1:00 pm
Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is welcome to the Chamber. I thank her for taking this Commencement matter. She will appreciate that it is quite a local issue, but one very close to her in Clonmel. The CBS High School in Clonmel is a wonderful school that provides education to secondary school boys in Clonmel. There are more than 700 students in the school, which is led by the principal, Karen Stenson, along with her staff. It has a brilliant reputation and is a fantastic school. The school has 700 students but does not have the capacity to manage them all, which is why, even before 2020, the school put in an application to the additional accommodation scheme. It was approved in February 2020. It is a huge project that involves almost €5 million in investment. It will deliver two special education teaching rooms, two science labs, a prep room, a design and communication graphics room, a home economics room, a textiles room, a mutlimedia room and two SEN classrooms, which is really important. It is a massive project.
The reason I have tabled the Commencement matter is because we have not seen any major movement on the project in the last four years. That is very frustrating for the school, the students, the staff and the parents. As a principal who has been doing very good work in the school over the last number of years, Karen has a responsibility to develop the school into a modern day facility that can meet the requirements of the 700 pupils there. An announcement was made in February 2020 that the new extension would be built in the school. At the moment, four years on, the project is still only at stage 2A, which is the cost plan stage of the project. The principal has been waiting on a decision on that since last June. From our perspective, as a Government we have invested very heavily in education, which has been really positive, but we need to deliver on that investment to actually see people working on the ground and the project being delivered. From the perspective of teachers and principals, when an announcement is made like this, students, parents and staff are excited to see a new modern section of the school being built. They all ask the principal when it is happening and why it is being delayed.She does not have any answers because the engagement with the Department can be quite difficult. You need to get lucky to get someone as a contact to deal with it in the Department. We need to speed up the process for this school. It is well over capacity at present and kids in the school need those facilities, especially in its special education section, which is very important to the Minister of State. They need those services and amenities as quickly as possible.
Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising what is a very important issue for CBS High School, Clonmel. I am familiar with the school. My son taught there for a while so I know the school and its bordering counties.
I thank the Senator on behalf of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, for giving me the opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme project for a new building project for CBS High School, Clonmel, County Tipperary. As the Senator said, the project referred to is a building project to deliver enhanced accommodation at CBS High School, Clonmel. I am pleased to advise that the Department of Education has approved a project to build two special educational tuition, SET, rooms, or general classrooms, two science labs, one preparation room, one design and communication graphics room, one home economics room, one textiles room, one multimedia room, and a two-classroom special educational needs base and ancillary accommodation. In June 2022, superseding approval was given to include one technology room, one preparation area and one project store, in addition to the original brief agreed. In addition, the school was also granted additional funding to amalgamate a summer works project included in the ASA project, which included an upgrade in ventilation works in August 2023.
Responsibility for delivering the project has been devolved to the school authority, which has appointed a design team to design the accommodation being provided and to bring the project through the tender and construction phases. I will outline the project's progress from stage to stage in accordance with the project brief and the Department's design guidelines. The project for CBS High School, Clonmel, County Tipperary, is currently at stage 2a of the process. Stage 2 involves detailed design and statutory approval followed by stage 3, which involves procurement of a contractor and progression to stage 4, construction and completion. Stage 2b includes obtaining all statutory approvals, preparing a set of fully detailed tender documents, and preparing an accurate pre-tender cost plan. At this early juncture in the project, it is not feasible to give an indicative timeline for delivery, which I know the Senator hoped for today. The Department will continue to engage directly with the school in providing assistance and advice to ensure delivery of this important project.
It is of the utmost importance that the final outcome for the project at CBS High School, Clonmel, will be the correct one for both the school authority and the pupils. Equally, neither the Department of Education nor the school is in any doubt about the criticality of the need for this accommodation for the wider school community. It is a very big project, as the Senator and I have outlined. I know how important it is for its 700 pupils and their principal. The early stages of getting things rolling, and I also see this in the Department of Health, can be so frustrating. When the first shovel is turned, however, it moves on very quickly. There is an overall pipeline of some 1,300 projects across the school system. The current status of all projects is listed on a county-by-county basis at www.gov.ie, which is updated on a regular basis to reflect project progress through the various stages of capital appraisal, site acquisition, design, tender and construction.
I will let the Minister, Deputy Foley, know that the Senator raised this matter in the House. She was not available to take it herself. I know how important this project is to the Senator, and all the pupils and families who use the high school in Clonmel. It is a school that has a great reputation. We see a school with 700 pupils waiting for this new build, many of whom will have left by the time it is in place. I understand the frustration in that regard.
Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. She took my line exactly. It is always good to have a connection to a school and her son taught there. The principal is from Ferrybank in Waterford so there is another connection that way. I will say, and the Minister touched on this herself, from the point the approval was made in February 2020 to the point when construction happens, we will have students in Clonmel who will have gone through CBS High School without ever seeing any construction from when it was announced.In my view, that is not an ideal situation. It is not fair to the kids, it is not fair to parents, and it is certainly not fair to the staff who are delivering a service of such high quality in facilities that are good, but that we have promised will be improved.
I recognise that extra funding of €144,000 was given in June 2023, essentially for ventilation upgrade works. That is good and it was increased to €5 million. However, the longer the wait to build this, the more it will cost. The fear in the school is that they will have to go back to the Department to say that there are increased costs because of the delay in construction.
I thank the Minister of State for taking a take a keen interest in this and for taking it back to the Minister, Deputy Foley. Yet, we cannot have a situation where kids in Clonmel will go through a full five or six years in school without ever seeing any construction on this when a promise was made in 2020.
Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator. The design team for the school has submitted a stage 2a report to the Department and this is currently under review by the Department’s professional and technical officers. Once this review is completed, its outcome will be shared with the school authority. The Department will continue to provide practical support and assistance to the school authority’s design team throughout the process.
Therefore, the next stage is for that review by the Department’s professional and technical officers. As soon as that is completed, it will go back to the school. Again, I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I assure him that the Department of Education is committed to moving this project forward as quickly as possible. I know how important this project is for the people of Clonmel. The Department of Education will continue to liaise with the school to progress this crucial project for CBS High School Clonmel. As I said, I will also mention to the Minister that Senator Ahearn raised it here today.
Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Ahearn for raising this very important issue for the young people in Clonmel and I thank the Minister of State for her reply.