2026-07-07

Is mór agam é labhairt anseo oíche anocht ar chás Scoil Chrónáin. Is Gaelscoil í i Rathcoole i mo Dháilcheantar. Tá sí 50 bliain ar an bhfód agus tá sí ag tabhairt aghaidh ar a céad 50 bliain eile. This evening, I am speaking on behalf of the school community of Scoil Chrónáin in Rathcoole who have asked their Oireachtas representatives to bring the school’s case to the floor of the Dáil on a number of points. Scoil Chrónáin is at the heart of Rathcoole village. It has a proud tradition of providing Gaelscolaíocht to communities in Rathcoole, Saggart and farther afield. I attended Coláiste Chilliain where there were many alumni from Scoil Chrónáin. It has a proud and noble tradition of education and a vibrant and active school community. Part of the school’s story is its wait for a new school building. There was great celebration agus ceiliúradh in the past few months when Scoil Chrónáin was identified as one of the priority school building projects under the national development plan’s educational sectoral plan. The project was to deliver a 16-classroom school, including two special education classrooms on the permanent Rathcoole site. The school is already relying on prefab accommodation, so the need for progress on this project was particularly urgent and acute. The project ended a tender process in February 2025 and submissions were received in May, but the preferred tenderer has withdrawn after due diligence. The challenge that is now being faced is that the school expected to see ground being broken at this stage. Its planning permission expires in November of this year. I am conscious that the Department is aware of all of this information. The school is at a crossroads in that it does not know where its permanent school building is at. There is a lack of clarity and certainty in that regard. Given that the school is 50 years in existence, has such a proud tradition of schooling and provides a first-class education to the students in its building, it is difficult to justify to that school community that it is still relying on prefab accommodation, especially when it expected a new building to be delivered. It is not the only school in Dublin Mid-West that faces this situation, but it is the one I am speaking about today. The school also faces an additional challenge in that its enrolment means it lost its 16th teacher for this coming school year. The average class size is approximately 25-26 students. This will result in the creation of three multi-grade classes of approximately 34 students between fifth and sixth classes. This loss of a teacher, along with education being provided in a building that should have been replaced and about which there was great hope it would have been replaced, will inevitably place additional pressures on teachers and students. I raise this case in particular because Gaelscolaíocht is very important and close to my heart. We know that scoileanna in the Gaeltacht receive additional teacher provision because of their status as scoileanna Gaeltachta. That privilege is not extended or afforded to scoileanna in non-Gaeltacht areas, despite the fact that they are Gaelscoileanna. The programme for Government that we support commits clearly to reducing the pupil-teacher ratio to 19:1 and to providing additional support for schools that have particularly large classes. My asks are threefold. First, I seek an update on where the new permanent building for Scoil Chrónáin that was promised in the NDP sectoral plan is. Second, what progress can we make to reducing the overall pupil-teacher ratio? Third, will consideration be given for scoileanna in non-Gaeltacht areas to have additional provision for a higher pupil-teacher ratio, where practical? Scoil Chrónáin has 50 proud years of education behind it. I hope it will embrace the next 50 years with the vibrancy, culture and the grá don Ghaeilge it has demonstrated in its five decades in Rathcoole. I hope we will be able to bring it some good news about the school building soon.

I thank the Deputy for raising this serious issue. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for education. The Department of education wishes to outline the current position in relation to the new school building for Scoil Chrónáin in Rathcoole, County Dublin. Scoil Chrónáin is an all-Irish, co-educational primary school under the patronage of the Archbishop of Dublin. The brief for the permanent project is to provide a new 16-classroom primary school and accommodation, including two classrooms for children with special educational needs on its permanent site in Rathcoole, County Dublin. This project will be delivered under the Department’s employee-led design team, which uses a professional external project manager to co-ordinate and drive the design team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of architectural planning to tender and then to construction. The project progressed to tender on 28 February 2025. The tender returns were received on 2 May 2025 and tenders were evaluated by the design team. Following due diligence and discussions with the preferred tenderer, the company withdrew its tender. The Department’s design team is now carrying out due diligence in relation to the next-placed tenderer, with a view to submitting a tender assessment report for the Department’s consideration. Projects are subject to relevant due diligence at each stage in the process, within the context of overall programme and budgetary parameters. The Department and the design team are monitoring the current progression of the project in terms of planning permission and, if necessary, will prepare the documentation for an application to extend the current planning permission ahead of its expiry later this year. That is good and it is important to get that information back to the parents and teachers. They are looking at the planning permission ahead of its expiry later this year. They are seeking to extend it. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing schedule operates in a clear and transparent manner and treats all similar types of schools equally. The enrolment of Scoil Chrónáin fell from 381 pupils to 354 pupils, which is 19 pupils below the threshold required to retain the 16th class teacher. As a result, the school's mainstream staffing is to reduce to 15 teachers in September. The staffing arrangements for the 2026-27 school year are set out in Circular 0025/2026. As the Deputy knows, it goes on the year before. That circular contains information and application forms on the staffing appeals process, whereby schools may appeal their staffing allocation to the primary staffing appeals board. The appeal submitted by the school was unsuccessful. The appeals board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final. The Department has a strong track record of delivering the school building programme, with more than €6.9 billion invested since 2020. This has delivered approximately 1,400 completed school building projects and more than 4,000 small-scale improvement projects. A total capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth has been confirmed for the period 2026-30 under the national development plan. As part of the NDP implementation plan for the education and youth sector, a first tranche of projects to progress to tender and construction during 2026 and 2027 was published in January 2026. This list includes the permanent school building project for Scoil Chrónáin National School. The Department will continue to keep the school and its patron body updated as the project progresses.

I acknowledge this is not the Minister of State’s brief and I appreciate her taking the time to go through this. I welcome the indication from the Department that it is aware of the need to extend planning permission. Without being flippant, the central point still holds here in that these parents and the school community were promised the school would go to construction during this two-year period. If we are talking about extending planning permission, there is a gap there in terms of the school building needing to be provided. It would be great to get an update from the Department about when it thinks it will have completed the due diligence on the next preferred tenderer and whether it thinks it will be able to move to construction imminently. If a minor extension on planning permission is needed, so be it, but the priority for these parents is the permanent school building. They have been waiting an awfully long time for it. The students are learning in prefabs. The site and money is there. Tá an toil ann. Parents want to see to see delivery on this building. I urge the Minister of State to bring this back to the Minister for education to make it very clear to her that the school deserves and needs a very clear update on when progress will happen in respect of construction. While it is important to place contingency, let us not make contingency the plan. It is important that we try to focus the mind and get to the plan we need to get to. With regard to the staffing issues, the Minister of State set out the figures quite clearly. Scoil Chrónáin is a Gaelscoil providing a first-class education and, as I mentioned, Gaelscoileanna get flexibility in terms of their pupil-teacher ratio. There is probably a case for that in the case of Gaelscoileanna in non-Gaeltacht areas, though I am also very conscious that there are other schools in my constituency that have also lost teachers as a result of falling enrolment numbers. That is why it is even more important that we as a Government, and I as a Government backbencher, continue to support the calls to bring down the pupil-teacher ratio to 19:1, to ensure we reduce our class sizes to the levels they need to be, and continue to support our teachers. In an environment where there are more special educational needs and teachers are under pressure as a result, and where there is more expected of our teachers, that reduction of the pupil-teacher ratio is extremely important.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. The Department will continue to build on the progress made over recent years with continued roll-out of projects on a priority basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities. In this regard, the Department published a list of 105 school building projects in the first tranche to proceed to construction or tender over 2026–27, totalling €1.6 billion in investment. These projects will deliver 27,000 additional modernised school places. I will definitely go back to the Minister as the Deputy is right. Communication is so important. I understand, as a parent myself, that when a person has children at school, while working with staff, communication with the Department is absolutely crucial. I see it in my constituency with schools which I know are being prioritised. I will go back and tell the Minister the Deputy has highlighted this. I thank him for raising the matter. Communication with the different sectors and working with the Department is so important for the schools, representatives and parents. The parents and staff need answers to the questions the Deputy has asked me. That is something I will absolutely bring back to the Minister. I thank the Deputy for highlighting this really serious issue.