Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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118. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether it is acceptable that a school (details supplied) is still without a permanent home; his plans to issue a compulsory purchase order to facilitate the access needed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48343/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, access to the permanent site for the school to which the Deputy refers, is a complex planning issue. Since June 2017, my Department has met with a third-party landowner on a number of occasions with a view to negotiating an acceptable solution to the access issue. As these are commercially sensitive negotiations it is not possible to comment further at this stage. All aspects are being progressed in close liaison with the local authority in order to ensure that a further planning application has the best likelihood of success. My Department is fully committed to bringing this project to a satisfactory conclusion as soon as the planning issues have been resolved.

As the Deputy may be aware my Department does not have statutory Compulsory Purchase Order powers. These can only be undertaken by Local Authorities in order to assist in the acquisition of land for educational use.