Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this Commencement matter. I know she has a particular interest in County Kildare because she told me previously that her mam is from Ballymore Eustace in south Kildare. I am sure all the Minister of State's relatives there are very proud of her success. Fair play to her.

I am raising the issue of a proposed secondary school that will for up to 1,000 students. It has been agreed it will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will have 16 classes for 425 pupils and phase 2 will have an additional 21 classrooms, including provision for special educational needs, as well as PE facilities, a library, etc. This school is going to be on a shared campus with two primary schools, Gaelscoil Mhic Aodha and the Kildare Town Educate Together national school. Why is it that this school is so urgent? Basically, we have a major capacity issue in Kildare town and Newbridge. Kildare town only has one secondary school. For the past six or seven years, there has not been enough space for all the children from Kildare town, let alone those who come from places near at hand that do not have secondary schools, including Milltown, Suncroft, Cut Bush and the Curragh. The secondary schools in Newbridge and Kildare town are the feeder schools for these areas, even though some of these schools are not official feeder schools. This causes a huge problem when it comes to sixth class. The stress the students, parents and families are undergoing is huge. Every year, from October and November on, many calls are made to me and other public representatives in this regard.

The agreement was that the Curragh Community College would be given temporary accommodation by the Department of Defence to try to fill the gap. It has done an incredible job in difficult circumstances. In fact, I had a Commencement matter in the House not too long ago on providing proper transport from Newbridge and Kildare town, which is not happening. I understand from the Minister, however, that we should hopefully have something in place in September. This is now a crisis. Our schools in Newbridge and Kildare town are full. The school proposed for the site of the former Magee Barracks is to provide badly needed capacity in a modern building with four SEN units. This is to be welcomed.

It took some time for the contract to be signed with the vendor. The planning application was lodged in October 2023. It took a year to get planning permission. An appeal to An Bord Pleanála was granted in January 2025. To be fair, the board dealt with the matter quite quickly. The issue mainly concerned the traffic management plan.I am aware the NTA had signed off on a 115-page plan from Kildare County Council in regard to that. This project is being managed under the accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering, ADAPT, programme. It is currently at stage 2b. It had been agreed that the school would be open for August 2026. We still have enough time for that to happen, but I am concerned because we are only at the tender stage of the process. Every commitment I have been given, once we had the initial delays, was for a date of August 2026. We must have this school open and functioning, even if it is just in phase 1 at that point. That is the reason for my question. I have been raising the issue on a continual basis and I will continue to seek updates.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator O'Loughlin very much for raising this matter, which provides me with the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth and to outline to the Seanad and the Senator's constituents the current position on the major building project at the Curragh Community College in Magee Barracks in Kildare. As she outlined, this project is a very important school building project for Kildare. She spoke about schools in Kildare town and Newbridge being under pressure and the extra capacity this school will provide and how welcome it will be for the area. For that reason, this project is included in the Department of Education and Youth's construction programme, which will be delivered under the national development plan, NDP, as part of the Project Ireland 2040 framework.

As the Senator outlined, the brief for this project is to provide a new permanent school for the Curragh Community College. The project is designed to be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will deliver accommodation for 425 students and phase 2 will deliver the remaining accommodation to provide for a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 students at the former Magee Barracks site in County Kildare.

Senator O'Loughlin outlined that the design team lodged its initial application for planning permission for the preferred design option with the local authority in October 2023. There was a substantial request for further information, RFI, from the local authority in respect of the planning application. Following the submission of the information, the local authority made an initial decision to grant planning permission, with conditions, in October 2024. The initial granting of planning decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála and the design team received An Bord Pleanála's decision to grant planning permission in early February of this year, just a number of months ago.

Senator O'Loughlin mentioned that the project is currently at the architectural planning stage - stage 3 - tender action and award and it is a priority project for delivery by the Department. The Senator also mentioned the ADAPT programme, which is all about accelerated delivery.

The design team issued the tender to the Department's design and build framework of contractors, with a return date of May 2025, just last month. The design team is currently reviewing the tenders received and will forward its report to the Department, with its recommendations, for review and approval. Once the Department has the review, it will then be in contact with the design team and the school to progress the project. I understand the urgency of the matter for Senator O'Loughlin and the people she is dealing with, in particular to get phase 1 up and running. I hope she can see that progress is evident.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. It is welcome news indeed that a number of tenders have been received and are currently being reviewed, and that the report of the review team will then be submitted to the Department. What is sadly lacking in the response is a commitment to the end date and to enabling students to start in August 2026.

I appreciate that a number of steps must be gone through. We had a horrific situation in St. Paul's Secondary School in Monasterevin where a contractor who was not awarded the tender took the Department to court, which unfortunately pushed that project out. I seek some level of surety that if things go according to plan - none of us can ever plan for unintended consequences - the school will be ready to open on schedule. The Curragh Community College, which has been in existence for some time, is pushing the boat out to accommodate the extra numbers, but it is causing problems with transport and for those who have to move away from their town. Could the Minister of State bring back the message to the Minister that we need surety?

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I absolutely hear the Senator on this. She wants to know when students will be able to walk into the school. Unfortunately, I cannot answer that today. We must make sure that the tenders that come in are valid and are awarded correctly. Then the construction phase must be entered into. I am sure that is something the Minister will keep the Senator informed of. Certainly, the Department will work closely with the school management to make sure that happens in as timely a fashion as possible. The Department continues to support the delivery of an extensive school infrastructure programme. Since 2020, the Department has invested in the region of €5.9 million in our schools throughout the country. That has involved the completion of over 1,350 school building projects. I have no doubt that the Department of education is working hard to make sure that the school building to which the Senator refers is added to that list shortly.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter and for giving me the opportunity to answer on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth. I assure the Senator that the Department is conscious of the need to continue to support the operation of the school system in County Kildare and will be in contact with the school and its patron as soon as the tender process is completed.