Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

135. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress which has been made since June 2017 with regard to securing planning permission for a permanent home for a school (details supplied). [40242/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ballinteer Educate Together National School is currently located on the Notre Dame campus, Upper Churchtown Road, Dublin 14 pending completion of the permanent accommodation for the school at the St. Tiernan’s Community School site in Balally.  Outline planning permission was submitted to the relevant local authority in December 2012 but was refused on the grounds of site access. This was appealed by my Department to An Bord Pleanála but subsequently withdrawn to facilitate submission to the local authority of an amended outline planning permission in 2013, which was also refused on similar grounds.

This decision was appealed by my Department to An Bord Pleanála but was refused. However, the Board considered that the matter of assessing alternative means of accessing these lands would benefit from a co-ordinated approach by my Department and the local authority in the interests of achieving a comprehensive and balanced solution to ongoing access issues on this educational campus.

This is a complex planning issue and my Department is in ongoing contact with the relevant parties, including meeting with the local authority and third-party landowners on a number of occasions, with a view to finding an acceptable solution to the access issue. All aspects are being progressed in close liaison with the local authority and it is imperative, that all of this work is done to the satisfaction of the local authority in order to ensure that a third planning application is successful. My Department is fully committed to bringing this project to a satisfactory conclusion as soon as the planning issues have been resolved.