School Accommodation Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2017

Thursday, 6 July 2017

Questions (4)

Joan Burton

Question:

4. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the delays experienced in commencing the construction of the permanent buildings of a school (details supplied); if his attention has been drawn to the fact the 2017-18 first class needs to be accommodated off campus at a site in Broombridge; if his attention has been drawn to the concerns parents have regarding the part of the school to be relocated off site and fears that the school will not remain on its existing campus; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31913/17]

Oral answers (8 contributions)

Deputy Joan Burton

The question deals with the issue of the Educate Together school that opened in Pelletstown in September 2015. It appears that children will now have to be bussed to and from the school. The suggestion that is worrying some of the parents is that some of the lessons are going to be on a bus. The Department has had plenty of notice about this school, which is serving 2,000 apartments and houses in a lovely area of Dublin called Pelletstown. The Department seems to have lost all sense of activity and urgency in facilitating this essential new school for the community.

Deputy Richard Bruton

I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has been liaising with the patron body of the school referred to by the Deputy with regard to additional accommodation required for September 2017.

As the Deputy may be aware, this is a developing school located in rented temporary accommodation in Rathborne, Dublin 15, which will require two additional classrooms for September 2017. Work is ongoing to provide additional prefab accommodation at this location as soon as possible.

In the interim, a number of options were explored with the patron body of the school. Following a board of management meeting in May 2017 the preferred option of the school, supported by the patron body, was to temporarily accommodate two of the classes in the nearby Broombridge Educate Together national school, Bannow Road, Dublin 7, which is in the Department’s ownership, as a short-term arrangement, pending delivery of the additional prefabricated accommodation. Broombridge Educate Together national school is a new 16-classroom school that opened in its permanent accommodation only last year, with most of its purpose-built rooms available for use.

Once the prefabs are installed, the classes temporarily located in Broombridge Educate Together national school will move back to the existing rented accommodation in Rathborne, Dublin 15.

I wish to clarify for the Deputy that the current site of the school in Rathborne is a temporary site. A suitable permanent site for the school's permanent accommodation has been identified. Discussions are ongoing with the landowner with a view to acquiring this site. Following this, the project for the new school building can progress into architectural planning.

Deputy Joan Burton

I imagine the Minister is familiar with Pelletstown. It is just behind Ashtown. It is on the railway line. Is the Minister seriously saying to parents that this is the best he can offer? This is a 2,000 home development. They are mostly apartments but there is housing too and more housing is being built. The community has been building for ten years and the school has been open for almost three years. It is somewhat unbelievable that the Minister is unable to move to have the prefabs built on the marketing suite site by the end of September. Can the Minister give us a date for when the prefabs will be on-site?

The Minister made a somewhat ambiguous comment on the second issue. Let us be clear about it. I invite the Minister to visit the site. The parents and community want the permanent school to be built on this site. I understand the site is owned by the same landowners who own the other proposed site. Perhaps the Minister can confirm this. I have visited the other site but in my view it has many deficiencies.

This is a primary school. It is important for the new community to send out a message that it is their lovely primary school on a nice site. By the way, the school has already been in fairly unsatisfactory temporary accommodation. The school got into the marketing suite site. Can the Minister please explain to me why his Department will not now seek to acquire the marketing suite site and make it the permanent site for this school? The school is going to help to define and build a great community of people.

Deputy Richard Bruton

I will outline the position in respect of prefab accommodation in the Rathborne site. It is anticipated that the temporary accommodation at the Rathborne site should be available prior to the end of the first term of the coming school year. However, it is not possible at this point to give a definite completion date. As the Deputy will be aware, standard timeframes are involved in the planning process. The project is a high priority for my Department and we will endeavour to have the temporary accommodation in place as soon as it is feasible to do so.

Unfortunately, the site acquisition process has taken some time to date. A number of complex technical issues arose in the process. These required detailed consultation with the relevant stakeholders. These issues have since been resolved and the acquisition is now at conveyancing stage. It is not possible at this point to give a timeframe for the completion of the acquisition, as legal complexities can arise during this stage. However, all parties are working towards completion of the acquisition at the earliest possible date.

Deputy Joan Burton

The Minister seems to be washing his hands of any concern for the parents and children involved. A 2,000 unit development is, by any standards, a large development. A school represents cornerstone infrastructure. The site for the school is now the marketing suite. This requires the Minister to have an open mind to enable him to do the best for children and parents.

We can go on and on about regulations and so on. The prefabs might not be in until the end of the first term. The children will be going on their Christmas holidays when the two prefabs arrive. That is simply not adequate. The Minister's predecessors were able to address these matters far faster. I believe the Minister can do the same and I imagine he would be willing to do the same, but he needs to do some work on it.

The Minister knows the area. The school is in a prominent site that will link into the local district development centre. That would provide a key building in terms of community infrastructure.

The population in Pelletstown is extraordinarily diverse. There are people from all over Ireland, all over Dublin and from the rest of the world. Can the Minister not see it? Does he not have the vision as a politician to see that, as the Minister for Education and Skills, he has an opportunity to make a mark that will provide a basis for this community to flourish and prosper?

Deputy Richard Bruton

As I indicated in my earlier reply, the site acquisition process is at conveyancing stage, following detailed consultation with the relevant stakeholders in the community. The Deputy is suggesting now that a different site be acquired.

Deputy Joan Burton

No, I was speaking about the current site.

Deputy Richard Bruton

What the Deputy suggests would result in further delay. The pretext on which Deputy raised the question was her concern, and rightly so, about unnecessary delays. On the installation of temporary accommodation, I respect the planning process, as did all of my predecessors. The statutory planning process must be complied with and my Department and I will comply with those obligations.