Brendan Smith urges speedy approval for St Adhan's school upgrade

I want to thank the Office of Ancancorda for selecting this issue for a topical debate this evening. Minister, I am also very glad that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Joe McEw, is here to take the debate. Minister, there is a long-standing application from St Adhan's Comprehensive School, Cotehill County Cavern, with your department in respect to the provision of a new PE hall, a socialisation space, and also extension to the woodwork and engineering rooms, and also general refurbishment work. I understand from representations to the department and replies to parliamentary questions that this application has been under consideration and under assessment for some time. Over the past number of years, some necessary improvement and upgrading works have been carried out at St Adhan's Comprehensive. There is an urgent need to have these additional facilities provided, and I urge the Minister to have the application progressed, finalised, and approved at the earliest possible date. St Adhan's Comprehensive was one of the first comprehensive schools built in 1966. Thankfully, over the past number of years, there has been substantial growth in the enrolment, which now numbers 512 students. This year alone, there is an extra class in first year, and it is also projected that there will be a further additional first year class for the 2020-2021 school year. So that is a sure sign of the positive role that it has in the community, and the determination of parents to have the opportunity to send their children to St Adhan's. Originally, the applications were made in respect of a substantial upgrading of St Adhan's back some years ago, and the applications have been revised in the meantime. When this project is approved, Cavanagh and the Education and Training Board will manage the project. Minister, as you are aware, our local ETB has been very successful, going back 11-12 years, in managing both building projects for primary and second-level schools. And as you are aware, there is very good value for money for the Exchequer and for the taxpayer in the projects that have been managed and delivered on time and under budget by Cavanagh and ETB. And I am sure when you, Grant, approve the funding for the St Adhan's Comprehensive Project, it will be delivered on time and under budget as well, Minister. Applications in respect of the PE Hall, necessary upgrading of woodwork and engineering rooms, also an art room, and also a requirement there is to have general refurbishment works undertaken, including, very importantly, an upgrade of an old heating system. It is clear to any of us that there is a necessity to have upgrading and refurbishment works carried out on a building which is more than 50 years old and has been in use every day of the week, practically, over that period of time. I have had the opportunity to visit the school on many occasions. It is clear to anybody who visits the school, the good educational environment, the good leadership by the Principal Marianne Smith, her Deputy Principal, and the entire staff of the school, both teaching and support staff. Recently, along with other Oireachtas members, I visited the school for the opening of a room for hearing impaired students, and also the occasion of the presentation of another green flag to the school, and also another very welcome initiative and achievement by the school, the presentation of a health-promoting schools flag, and that is a very worthy endeavour, and great credit is due to the teachers and the students who participated in those competitions and won those awards. Apart from the school's core work of teaching subjects and delivering education, there has always been a very varied and worthwhile programme of extracurricular activities. It is delightful to see the many awards won for different sporting disciplines when one enters the reception area in the school. Over the past number of years alone, the school has successfully competed in county, provincial and national competitions in camogie, basketball, soccer and Gaelic football. Many of those teams have taken home the national awards with them. We are very aware of the need for people to participate in sport, and great credit is due to the school and the staff who take on the coaching and management role of different teams. That work goes on well outside the normal school hours. It is very frustrating for the coaches and the management teams and those preparing teams that they lack basic PE facilities in preparing the teams, as well as good leadership by the principal, the deputy of Princeton, by all the school staff. There is a very active Board of Management and an equally active and committed parents' association. All of them, Minister, combined along with the support of public representatives, are very determined that this building project will proceed to construction as soon as possible. And your assistance in this respect will be much appreciated. Thank you. I am sure all members are conscious that we do not have a huge amount of pressure on us, but I think a minute is sufficient. Minister, please. I would like to thank the deputy for raising this issue here today, because it gives me the opportunity to clarify the position in relation to the Department of Education and Skills plans for upgrading school buildings, including St. Aidan's comprehensive school, Cotehill County Cabin. St. Aidan's is a co-educational comprehensive school under Catholic patronage. There are currently 512 pupils enrolled in the school, which represents a decrease in enrolment of 2% in the last five years. I am pleased to advise the deputy that a building project for the provision of a one-class special educational needs base was completed at St. Aidan's comprehensive school, as the deputy will be aware, in early 2019. My department's planning and building unit has subsequently received an application from St. Aidan's comprehensive school, seeking further capital funding for additional school accommodation, which was outlined by the deputy, including the provision of a PE hall. This application is currently being considered by my department. As soon as this process has been completed, the school authority will be informed. I am also able to confirm to the deputy that my department is in receipt of an application from the school for the summer work scheme 2020 onwards for a one-dose project commensurate with the level of funding available for the summer work scheme 2020 onwards. All applications will be assessed in accordance with the prioritisation criteria outlined in the governing circular letter for the scheme. In that regard, applications submitted for other works will be considered under future rounds of the summer work scheme, and St. Aidan's comprehensive will be considered in that regard. More generally, under the National Development Plan, increased funding has been provided for the school sector capital investment programme. This funding allows for a continued focus on the provision of new permanent school places to keep pace with demographic demand, and also provides for an additional focus on the refurbishment of existing school buildings to include the building and modernisation of PE facilities in post-primary schools. As the deputy will be aware, under the Ireland Project 2040, we will invest £8.4 billion, compared to £4.9 billion in the previous decade, in primary and post-primary school buildings. This investment will see a 70 per cent increase in the school building budget, which will be targeted at delivering on the twin objectives of catering for the continued increase in demographics and a greater focus on refurbishment and upgrade of existing school stock. The government remains committed to delivering on existing projects on the school building programme. The immediate priority is providing 20,000 new and replacement school places each year to ensure that every child has a school place. The government will focus in the medium term on the provision of PE facilities in post-primary schools. Project Ireland 2040 provides the investment necessary to implement the commitments and the Action Plan for Education to reform and modernise the school curriculum by committing to a PE hall build and modernisation programme, starting in the second half of the Project Ireland 2040 period. That ensures that students in all post-primary schools have access to state-of-the-art facilities to support PE provision, particularly also in the context of the rollout of PE as a Leaving Certificate subject. During 2018 and 2019, the capital budget is facilitating extensions and new school has been delivered as part of the rollout of Project Ireland 2040, which involved overall construction activity during 2018 and 2019 of circa 130 large-scale projects ranging in value from €1 million to projects in excess of €20 million. There was also an excess of 280 projects with a project value less than €1 million at construction during this period. All of these projects are expected to deliver more than 40,000 permanent additional replacement school places and replace circus 600 prefabs. This will make significant progress in relation to providing modern energy efficient school facilities and the replacement of temporary accommodation. All new schools been constructed by my department includes the provision of PE facilities and also endeavours to include these facilities in the design of major extensions within the constraints of available funding where possible. I would like to thank the Deputy for raising this again. I know Deputy Smith has raised this issue on a number of occasions as well. to outline to the Department of Educational Skills position and I understand the application from St Aidan's is under review and the Department will be in contact with the school authority directly. Thank you Minister. Deputy Brian Smith. Hi Minister. Your concluding remarks, I would like it to move from review to finalisation and approval, so hopefully the next time you communicate with us on this it will be outlining approval for the project. Minister, you get requests every day of the week in regard to very worthy building projects and projects that are needed to be advanced. I can say that this is one that is exceptionally worthy. It's overcrowded the school. They don't have PE facilities for 500 plus pupils. Some of the existing classrooms need upgrading as a matter of urgency. There is exceptionally good academic results from the school. I instanced earlier all the extracurricular activities. If the PE hall is granted it will be available for the community. It's a school that doesn't close at 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening. It's open within reason for community events and for access for other schools to use it as well. So Minister, the money that you will hopefully allocate at an early date will be put to exceptionally good use. It's needed. St. Dayton's comprehensive having been established in 1966 is a source of pride to everybody in Cavanagh and Monaghan. It draws pupils from both counties that it was one of the first comprehensive schools established after the announcement of the extension of free second level education to all in the mid-1960s. So it's basically the same school with some upgrading work over the years. But there is a requirement now for further upgrading work, refurbishment work. I instanced the PE hall, the need for proper construction and engineering classrooms, an art room and also the heating system. Also, there's no canteen facilities there at the minute. 512 pupils plus 53 staff. It's a big congregation of people in a limited building at any stage. So Minister, I said earlier, Cavanagh and ETB will manage the project when it gets to the stage of going to construction. They, as I said earlier, have delivered projects on time within budget and under budget for the department in both counties over the past few years. And I have no doubt, when you are in a position to approve that funding, that money will be put to very good use. And the wider school community in Coothill will very much appreciate the provision of those upgraded and additional facilities. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your concluding remarks. Yeah, I think the Deputy makes the case very well. As, like as constituency colleagues as well, and I referenced Deputy Smith, and I know I've spoken to my Cabinet colleague Heather Humphreys about this, and Senator Joe Riley keeps this issue on the agenda. And I am very well aware that there is a bit of preparatory work in these, a good bit of preparatory work in these applications. And I am aware, as you pointed out, Deputy, that the ETB are very much involved in this in terms of making the case. So look, I don't want to create expectations. I never do that. It's not my style. It's been reviewed at the moment. And I know review doesn't signify or indicate any, you know, signposting as to where we're going with this. But obviously, the need for the additional accommodation and it's, you have a variety of different needs from the creative arts to physical education as well. So what I'll do is I'll ask my officials to ensure that it's kept on the agenda to ensure that they get to the end of the review and see where we'll go from there. Thanks, Jim. Thank you, Minister.