2025-12-09

Can I clarify what Minister of State is taking it?

I am.

Okay. I have submitted a Topical Issue tonight. Everybody knows TDs wait seven or eight weeks to get a chance to have a Topical Issue. It is a precious opportunity. I have a really important issue to raise in respect of my constituency. I walked past the Minister of State for education as I came here this evening. The Minister of State for education is not even here, never mind the actual Minister for education. I am strongly protesting this. I have a right not to take this if the actual Minister of State is not here. There is supposed to be either the senior Minister or a Minister of State from the Department here tonight. I just walked past the Minister of State in the hall. That is absolute and utter disrespect. I want clarification on this. Could somebody clarify what the Standing Orders allow for? I ask for the clock to be frozen at four minutes because I have every right to raise this issue.

To be helpful while the official is looking up the exact Standing Order in relation to it, I have discussed with all senior Ministers that I expect, as Chief Whip, that somebody from the Department takes a question. That is why I am here myself taking the previous three health questions. I always try to come in if they are about mental health. Sometimes, it is impossible if a Minister or Minister of State is not available. Deputy Mac Lochlainn said he has seen the Minister of State. We then move to Front Bench cover. My expectation of Ministers is that, where possible, it would be fulfilled by the Minister or a Minister from that Department.

I appreciate the Government Chief Whip saying that. What made me angry tonight is that I walked past the Minister of State on my way here.

To clarify, the Deputy can defer it until the next day.

I ask to defer it until tomorrow morning. Is that okay? Until we have either the Minister or Minister of State here.

Will we defer it until tomorrow morning? Yes. We will put it to the Ceann Comhairle's office for the Deputy.

Okay. I thank an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.

To clarify, Topical Issues are on at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning and I am actually taking one. It is my understanding that the list is already full for the morning so I cannot say whether it would revert to tomorrow or further away. That does not come through me. It comes through the Oireachtas. I cannot state for definite that Deputy Mac Lochlainn's will be taken in the morning.

I appreciate the Chief Whip's acknowledgement of my frustration. On that basis, I will just go ahead and take it now. It is no disrespect to Deputy Feighan, as he knows. I have utmost respect for him personally but I walked past the Minister of State on the way here. The rules are very clear. It is either the full Minister or the Minister of State who takes it, so it is no disrespect to Deputy Feighan. If the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach does not mind, I will restart the clock and take it now because the issue is important. I will talk to the senior Minister tomorrow about it too.

Okay.

The issue tonight is St. Eunan's College in Letterkenny. I recently visited the college again at the invitation of the student council. There were these outstanding young men who took me around the school. It is not the first time I have had a tour of St. Eunan's College. I have done it a number of times over the years but I have to say, I was really shocked at the current condition of the college. There are impossible conditions for both students and teachers to work in. There is the original building from 1909 and there were additions in 1979. You can clearly see the dilapidated conditions of the buildings throughout. There is no disability access in the entire college. There are lifts but they are not used, which means that students with a disability are not going to the college. The college has 1,000 students today in a school that was designed for hundreds. They have waited a long, long time. They started to engage in 1999 with the Department and the Ministers and it has just dragged on and on. For me, I find it so frustrating how long it takes to deliver public building projects in this country. I have visited the college a number of times over the years. It is desperately slow to deliver the amenities. This is a fantastic school. I do not know how it delivers the standard of education it does in the facilities it has. For example, there are eight toilet cubicles for a population of 1,000 students. If you go through the old buildings, they are in appalling conditions and there is black mould, windows are broken and boarded up, walls are damp and soaking wet as you run your hands down them and there are totally inadequate amenities for young people to congregate during lunch breaks. It is absolutely appalling. I know in the Minister of State's response, he will say that it is at the design stage and it is getting ready to go to tender. This Government has recently launched this infrastructure plan. It has to get a grip on the length of time it takes to deliver these projects. People are learning in absolutely unacceptable conditions. This a superb school that gives a superb standard of education. As are all the TDs, I am currently being lobbied by former students who are deeply proud of the history of the college. They are fighting for the next generation. The students and young people I met, who were the highest calibre of young people, will not be in that college or be in school when the new facilities are delivered. They are fighting for the next generation. They are trying to ensure that nobody has to go through and endure those conditions again. I stress to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, that I will speak to the Minister for education, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, tomorrow. I will make it my business to personally speak to her. I wanted her to be here tonight. I will ask for an explanation as to why the senior Minister and the Minister of State were not here. I walked past the Minister of State for education in the hall. I am really disappointed about that. I mean no disrespect because the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, came here late at night to read a statement. I appreciate him doing that but he would understand, if he were in my position, the frustration I have. Those young people, parents and teachers would want the Minister for education to be present. The issue here is for the Minister to come to the school, visit the board of management, the parents’ committee and the students and do a full tour of the school. That is what I wanted to ask her to do, but I will ask her tomorrow when I see her.

I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for raising this matter. It gives me an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, to outline to the Dáil the current position in relation to the school project for St. Eunan’s College in Letterkenny. This project is included in the Department of Education and Youth’s construction programme, which will be delivered under the national development plan as part of the Project Ireland 2040 framework. St. Eunan’s College is a single-sex, Catholic secondary school for boys under the patronage of the Bishop of Raphoe. This school building project will deliver a new extension and refurbishment of some existing accommodation to provide accommodation for 1,000 pupils and additional classrooms for children with special educational needs. The stage 1 submission of this major project was initially received in May 2020 and, following the submission of an addendum report, it was approved to the next stage in September 2020. Following this, stage 2A of the project was approved in April 2021. An emergency works application for the installation of fire alarms and related works was completed in April 2022. Following a review of the schedule of accommodation, the design team was requested to submit design options to include an increase of two classrooms for children with special educational needs. The design team submitted its amended design options to include the increased accommodation to the Department for review, which was approved in July 2024. Planning permission was secured in March 2022. Thereafter, a complete stage 2 report was received by the Department in October 2024 for review. Stage 2B involves detailed design, securing all statutory approvals and the preparation of tender documentation. In February 2024, the Department secured decant accommodation in the vacant boys’ national school, which is adjacent to the school site. This will facilitate the decant of the school to allow completion of the major project. However, these premises will be subject to enabling works in anticipation of the major project progressing to construction. The next stage in the process will be stage 3, tender action and award. The Department is in continuous contact with the design team and the school regarding further progression of the project. In July, the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the 2026-2030 period under the national development plan. As part of this NDP allocation, the Department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. With regard to the project roll-out for large-scale projects and additional school accommodation scheme projects, the approach will be to continue to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project roll-out over the course of the 2026-2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs.

I thank the Minister of State for communicating the current position of the Department and the Minister. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, is obviously new to her role. The previous Minister in this portfolio, Deputy McEntee, visited the school and, indeed, considering the seriousness of it, the Minister in this role before her, Deputy Foley, also visited the school. My understanding is that the Minister, Deputy Foley, did not get a full tour of the facilities. That is absolutely essential for any Minister. I appeal to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to come to Donegal as soon as possible to do a full tour of St. Eunan’s College because it is utterly unacceptable. I am going to say it again: this is an outstanding school with an outstanding educational culture. I do not know how they do it but the teachers and students together deliver a standard of education that is superb, despite the absolutely unacceptable conditions they operate in. Those young people toured me around the school and we met with the principal. I could see the respect. While a number of teachers were present, it was the young people themselves who led the way. They are the leaders of the future but they deserve better. They are calling on public representatives and the Government to make sure that no student goes through this type of situation in the future. I am asking the Minister of State to communicate that to his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Naughton. I have gone ahead with this Topical Issue in good faith tonight, but I ask that it is communicated to the Minister to please come up to Donegal to meet with those students whom I met. If she does the exact tour I did, I have no doubt she will be motivated to urgently progress this project and get it built as soon as possible.

I will bring the Deputy's concerns back to the Minister and ask her, if she is in Donegal, to put in a tour of St. Eunan's College. Since 2020, the Department has invested over €6 billion in schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of 1,300 school building projects. In addition, repurposing and optimising existing accommodation capacity across the school estate has been a key enabler of timely local provision of special class capacity in a way that supports best practice in inclusion and integration. Some 80% of new special classes in 2025 and 2026 are being facilitated by repurposed classroom accommodation. The Government's support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million, approved by the Government, helped to bring the total capital allocation of the Department in 2025 to €1.6 billion. Government Departments are currently in the process of publishing their sectoral national development implementation plans. The sectoral plan for the education and youth sector will be published next week and the first tranche of projects to progress to construction will be published in January. The NDP implementation plan will optimise input from the NDP allocations with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is sufficient and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money and meets functional needs. I thank the Deputy again for raising this important issue.