School Facilities
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I thank the Minister of State for coming in and taking this important Commencement matter. There is an increasing problem whereby schools are facing serious structural issues and they are not being allocated the resources to get things right and function properly. I raised in this House a couple of weeks ago the issues that CBS Westland Row has. As I am sure the Minister of State knows, that is not too far from here; it is a short walk. In that school, there is a defective downpipe and it has caused mayhem. It has closed the boys' toilets. It has also made many of the classrooms unsafe and unhealthy for teachers and students alike. That, understandably, is affecting the morale within the school. This is a school that is working with some of the most disadvantaged and diverse communities in the country. There was money allocated to the school to do some remedial work on the downpipe. There was a certain amount provided, so the immediate job will be done. However, the school is a very old building. It is naturally showing, like the rest of us when we get old, signs of ageing and creaking and it requires a lot of work just to make it safe and hygienic to work in. The school was assigned funds for other works previously and not all of that was spent. The money is there, and it needs to be reassigned to fix the serious works that are required. We need to see some common sense around this. The money was allocated for maintenance work. Some of that was spent. There was some left over. Why is that money not reallocated to the school to do the really important emergency works that are required there? I am sure there is somebody in the Department who is just ticking boxes. The Minister needs to intervene and show some common sense to get this resolved and get the school up to the proper standard.
Just down the road from CBS Westland Row is Ringsend boys' and girls' school. This school is going to be amalgamated, so certain works need to be carried out to facilitate the amalgamation. In January, representatives from the building section of the Department visited the school and saw for themselves the dire state of the toilets. "Grim" was the word used to describe them. They are grim. The school principal in Ringsend was told that the toilets issue would be addressed during the summer to allow for the schools to be amalgamated in September as planned. Without the work on the toilets being carried out, amalgamation will not be able to go ahead. If this school was in Foxrock or one of the affluent areas, I doubt these really important works would have been refused. However, pupils in Ringsend are required to tolerate Dickensian conditions. We need to know why it took so long to reply to the original application.
The application was sent in July 2025 and the school did not get a reply until February 2026. That is pretty extraordinary. The school is upset by that as well as the work not being done. Why was it not flagged months ago that it should have been a summer works application? That should have been flagged ages ago. The school is of the belief now - I was speaking to the principal yesterday - that the work will be done which is welcome but I am not convinced. We will have to see that this work is done and that the amalgamation will go ahead. It has other issues that also need to be addressed which include teacher allocation and the fact that Ringsend boys' and girls' school has not received DEIS plus designation. That has to be addressed as well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16