Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-01
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank Deputy McGrath for his question. I visited the school in Shanbally and saw the condition of it. I saw the excellent work being done by the school community - the teachers, the SNAs and everybody involved - and the commitment those people have to education. Both schools are co-education primary schools catering for boys and girls from junior to sixth class. Both schools have agreed to amalgamate, with a new school building to be constructed. The new school is expected to be located on a six-acre site that is privately owned. If I understand it correctly, this will be transferred to the council and then to the diocesan trust. This is a very important element and I will certainly relay the comments of Deputy McGrath back to the planning and building unit. A lot of the time, technical transfers are slow and cumbersome. When the transfer is made to the diocesan trust, we can make the decisions; we will have the site and we can move on to the next level.
Both schools are in separate buildings and Deputy McGrath understands all of this quite well. What we need to do today is make sure that we have the pieces together to move it on. I saw the condition of the school in Shanbally. Something needs to be done in the Department. We have project managers and others in place for this project. From what I have heard from Deputy McGrath today, the transfer of the site is progressing through various stages. If there is further documentation or information that Deputy McGrath can bring to the table, I would appreciate it in terms of the timeline, as we could then put it on the table and say that the site was moving forward. We could then move to the next stage.
With the best will in the world, there are a number of stages to go through, including planning and design. I know that Deputy McGrath will work with the local authority to ensure it passes through this stage. The local authority is very open to it and it understands it. The site has been earmarked. Without going through all of the detail, the brief is for 16 classrooms, as Deputy McGrath is well aware. This is about the amalgamation of both schools. Deputy McGrath indicated that there were about 200 pupils in one school and 60 in the other. This is very important for education, not alone now, but in future. If I could get sight of the transfer documents, I could then take them to the planning and building unit and we could ensure that a speedy response is given as fast as possible. We often talk about delays and legal issues but we have to try to cut through this. I have seen for myself the situation and I will certainly do what we can in the Department to move the project on.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-01