2026-04-23

I will give the Minister of State some of the context in a moment but the simple ask is that the children, staff and parents connected to Owenabue Educate Together National School want to know what the plan is and when their project will go to stage 2. The current situation is totally unsustainable. The school was opened in 2020. To give some context, Carrigaline is probably a bit like places in the Minister of State's constituency. The town has grown rapidly, from about 12,000 people in 2006 to 15,000 or 16,000 by 2016, and the population will quickly reach 20,000. There are huge numbers of young people and children and a massive need for additional school places in the area. In 2020 or earlier, the Department proposed a new school and the new Owenabue Educate Together National School was opened in 2020. A site was soon identified for the school's permanent location but the building in question was reallocated to another school in March 2021. Owenabue national school had been due to move into that building the following September. That was a huge setback for the school but, at the time, it was given clear assurances by the Department of education that it would be treated as an urgent priority. It was confirmed in 2021 that the permanent accommodation would be a new-build. A site was identified over three years ago and subsequently purchased in Janeville, a new, large housing estate built on the northern end of Carrigaline. Since then, the board of management and school leadership have been trying to engage with the Department of education. The project was commenced and meetings were held in May 2024. These indicated the school could possibly move in 2027-28, which is potentially as soon as the school year beginning next September. Stage 1 - design and review - documentation was submitted in June 2025, which is eight or nine months ago at this stage, but as of now, the project has still not been signed off to go to stage 2. It has not progressed beyond stage 1 during that period. No communication has been received by the school or patron in relation to when the project will progress. This has clear implications. There are a number of schools in the area and parents are trying to evaluate the future prospects for the school and the children. This is hindering the school's growth. It is a fantastic school with a strong school leadership and a fantastic school community around it. People are obviously concerned about the future given the school's inability to plan. The school is also split across two sets of buildings. I am sure the Minister of State has come across this before. It is far from ideal for a school in terms of planning, staff, supervision of children during breaks and ensuring the whole school community stays tight together. That it is currently split is not good enough. The Minister of State will be familiar with the need to ensure there is adequate provision of special autism classes. There are currently two autism classes. The plan for the design of the permanent building includes approval for five autism classes, recognising local need given the very young population in the area. Obviously, those classes cannot be delivered until the school building is delivered. The school is not getting any answers. Everything asked of it was submitted before June 2025. The target of 2027-28 is not much more than a year away. The school wants to know when the project will go to stage 2 and whether it is possible to achieve the deadline. Its ability to grow and prosper as a school community is being undermined by the lack of answers and lack of a clear plan for the school.

I am very grateful to Deputy Ó Laoghaire for raising this very pertinent issue in relation to Owenabue Educate Together National School in Carrigaline, County Cork. The Deputy is right that he could be reading this about at least seven different schools in my constituency. I have, therefore, great empathy for the case the Deputy raised and for the entire school community. As alluded to, this school building project will deliver a new 16-classroom primary school and additional accommodation for children with special educational needs at Janeville in Carrigaline, County Cork. The project is currently at stage 1, preliminary design, assessment of site and location suitability and initial sketch scheme. As part of the stage 1 process, the design team submits a stage1 report to the Department. A preferred design option, including the scope and extent of works to be carried out, forms part of this report. The stage 1 report was received in the Department in January 2025 and upon completion of the Department of education's due diligence review, the stage 1 stakeholders meeting took place on 24 March 2025. The principal, a representative from the patron body, Educate Together, all design team members, the project manager and Department officials were in attendance. The meeting concluded with agreement that the design team would explore further design layout options. On 30 April 2025, an architectural workshop took place between the design team architect and the Department senior architect. The Department received the full design team stage 1 addendum report in August 2025 and this report is currently under review by the Department of education. On completion of this review, the Department will be in contact with the school and patron with regard to the further progression of the project. For wider context, as the Deputy is aware, the Government recently published the €7.55 billion national development plan, NDP, sectoral investment plan for education. Of the total €7.55 billion investment, it is envisaged that circa €5 billion will be used for project roll-out to support the delivery and modernisation of school buildings. The Department has also published a list of the 105 school building projects in the first tranche to proceed to construction or tender over 2026 and 2027. This list includes 12 projects in County Cork. The first tranche of 105 school building projects includes 80 large-scale and additional school accommodation scheme projects. To be frank, I think this will be a slightly frustrating reply for the Deputy and those on whose behalf he raised the issue. It is, however, typical of a process that is in the middle of the weeds. It would be irresponsible of me, on behalf of the Minister, to provide false information at this stage, other than to say that this is the review that is in place. What I would humbly suggest is that the Deputy consider bringing a deputation from the school for a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Naughton. I would be more than happy to play my part to ensure that is delivered as soon as possible.

If that is something the Minister of State could facilitate or help to facilitate, I will take him up on it. This is, of course, frustrating. The schools is looking for answers. When will the project go to stage 2? We can say the school delivery team has so many projects and it is hard to get through them all, but if the Government, at the highest level, is setting a target for the delivery of that many schools, it clearly needs to ensure the team is resourced enough to get through them. There are many other schools as well, as the Minister of State has alluded to, that are waiting for answers. That is not good enough. This is imposing a huge constraint on the ability of the school to operate. It is under a lot of pressure. I have acknowledged, and I hope the Minister of State will also acknowledge, that it is never ideal for a school to be split across two sets of buildings. It is a difficult situation to manage. When we talk about prioritisation, it should be taken into account that the school was given a commitment that its project would be prioritised. The context was that five years ago the school was told the building that had been clearly identified for the new school would no longer be available to it. The roadmap changed. The goalposts were shifted right at the last minute. The school was due to move into that building in September 2021. That option was removed and it now looks like it will be September 2027 at the earliest before the school moves. The Minister of State will not be able to provide a date right now. However, I urge the Department to provide a date - even an approximate one - by which the school will get stage 2 approval, so that it can understand when the project will move on. I make the point again that the school will not be able to deliver the number of autism classes it wants to deliver. The school leadership has the appetite and desire to deliver as many autism class places as possible. It will not be able to do that until such time as the school has the permanent school building, its permanent home, for the coming decades and generations.

That is a perfectly valid request. I advise having a deputation meeting and writing a formal letter to the Department of education on foot of this Topical Issue debate. The Deputy has been in this House longer than I have, and he and I know that Topical Issue debates are only a step in the process by which constituency TDs provide good advocacy. I will not insult the Deputy by giving out the departmental lines that this is obviously a process, there is continuing prioritisation and that prioritisation will move forward. Ultimately, the school community in Carrigaline - the current parents, the prospective parents and, most importantly, the children who rely on the Deputy to be their voice - expect better answers. I will have no hesitation in meeting the Deputy afterwards to see how we can facilitate such a deputation meeting as quickly as possible and ensure it gives as clear a timeline as is possible, recognising that any new school project or, more likely, school expansion project will be evaluated. I take on board the two factors the Deputy raised, namely, growing demand, first and foremost, for what is needed and that this school is split over two sites. Having two campuses and two buildings is never the optimum or ideal. I make that undertaking to the Deputy in good faith.