Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry to have to raise this Commencement matter because the issue is an ongoing one. Rush National School is a school in north County Dublin that was built in 1953 and now has 700 pupils. Morgan Doran is the principal and runs an excellent school. It has served untold numbers of people from Rush and it is an excellent school. Plans have been afoot to build a new school on the site for in excess of 17 years. This would be a 32-classroom school with two autism classrooms and all the ancillary rooms needed for a modern fit-for-purpose school.

The campaign was started by the former principal Margaret Dobinson and the board of management 17 years ago. When Morgan Doran took over as principal, the chairman of the board of management, Peter Conway, continued this campaign. Approval was obtained for this building development in 2010 and planning permission was granted in 2013. It has been renewed in the interim but, unfortunately, planning permission expired on 8 December 2023. There has been no correspondence from the Department of Education for more than a year. The last piece of correspondence was dated 14 April 2023. The board of management has made numerous attempts to engage the Department to see what steps it should take next. The expiring of planning permission was looming. The board of management had no correspondence. Nobody from the Department would engage.

It is very frustrating given this has been an ongoing issue for 17 years. The school is way oversubscribed with a very long waiting list. The building dates from 1953 and is damp, cold and not fit for purpose. The teachers are working and children are being educated in appalling conditions and they all deserve better. The children are getting a very good education there. There is great community spirit, the people of Rush are very invested in the school and school staff are excellent and dedicated, but it is not acceptable that such conditions are continuing and the Department is not engaging.

I held off raising this Commencement matter because the school wants to engage in a constructive way and move the project on but we feel there is no other solution. The school must re-apply for planning permission. It needs direction from the Department regarding the termination of the current tender procedure, but it is not getting that from the Department. The board of management under the stewardship of Peter Conway is very frustrated and does not know what steps it needs to take next. Local authority planning guidelines have changed since the date the school first got planning permission, so it has to change the design but it cannot proceed with that either until it gets engagement from the Department. Meanwhile the years fly by. The school cannot put any autism classes in place, which is a source of great frustration to the school management because it wants to serve everybody in the community. Unfortunately, it cannot offer school places to some members of families because they need special autism education. This is not an acceptable position to be in. The population of Rush is in excess of 11,000 and is expanding rapidly. There are many large-scale building projects in the town. The school cannot facilitate it. There are not enough school places. North County Dublin is absorbing the housing needs of Dublin, and Rush is no exception. We are getting thousands of houses. We have no problem with that. We are not objecting to housing because we all know we need it, but we need the public infrastructure to go along with housing. Schools are the top priority. We need buses. We need the metro. We need services delivered for north County Dublin and for Rush. Planning approval for the St. Maur's site next to the school as a temporary play site while construction takes place expires in March 2026, so this really needs to get moving. I appeal to the Minister of State to get the Department to engage with the board of management and get this project going.

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for that update. Can we get somebody within the Department actually to liaise with the school? That information was not communicated to the board of management. It is operating in a vacuum and obviously has to report back to the parents and the whole community as to what is going on. However, when no communication is going back that is a frustrating situation for the board.

There is a bit of progress but this school project needs to be put on a fast track. It is unacceptable to wait for 17 years, considering the population demands. All schools have difficulties in retaining staff, particularly in Dublin. The Department expects staff to work in a building that is crumbling around them and is cold and damp in the winter. They patch up windows before they can teach a class in the morning. The Minister of State will understand the challenges that the principal is dealing with. We need to have somebody in the Department who will stay in contact. I realise they are busy people but this school and this community have waited long enough and they deserve better.