Lucan Community College written transcript

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

The Government seriously needs to reassess and reconfirm its commitment to imminently provide the full extension and refurbishment project promised to Lucan Community College going back to 2010. We are talking about dedicated classrooms for children with special educational needs, physical education space and refurbishment. The current piecemeal solution of a reduced phase 1 and temporary repurposing of some rooms for special educational needs and reviewing the situation in relation to the originally promised phases 2, 3 and 4 is not satisfactory.

Lucan Community College has a long and illustrious history in my constituency. It goes back to the vocational education committee, VEC, in the 1950s on the Lucan Newlands Road. By 1997, with population increases, the new Lucan Community College was established on its current location in Esker Drive under what is known today as the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, DDLETB. This school rapidly gained a reputation as a centre of excellence, so much so that it started to need lotteries for places at a very early stage. Today, even acknowledging the deficit of second level school places and the fact that the Department is always behind the curve in providing places, it is the co-educational school of choice in Lucan. Lucan Community College has always been massively oversubscribed. Parents and children want to go to this institution because of the quality of teaching and the depth of its curriculum. When it started out in the new building in 1997, it was a state-of-the-art facility. However, it soon found itself needing to increase its intake. It has approximately 956 pupils today. Its capacity has not matched that increase in population. Different parts of the school started deteriorating over time - stuff that could not be fixed with summer work schemes and other tranches of funding. It is now overcrowded. It needs a major extension and significant refurbishment. These days, parents apply to get their kids into the school in spite of, not because of, the facilities of the school. I have been told by several exasperated parents who have more than one child in the school that this is the case. They know that the school facility is not great but that the teachers are fantastic. A lot more is needed, but the Department is dragging its heels.

To put it in context, I first heard about this and I was raising Dáil questions in previous terms going back to 2007 when it was gradually moving towards the architectural planning stage in 2010. However, it took several more years to get the design and the planning permission in and it dragged on to 2020-21 when, eventually, it started moving towards the tender. In 2024, however, there was a delay in terms of issuing letters of intent. The school felt huge relief when this finally came through. They thought the extension was finally coming but last summer, in replies to parliamentary questions, it was indicated by the predecessor of the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, that due to the length of time between planning and construction, there was going to be a review of the project. Everyone thought this was going to involve tweaking and shaving stuff off because we know the costs have increased but no, the plan was now to build a modular building that was well insulated and long lasting, etc., but on a much smaller footprint, with no indication of what is going into the original footprint and over what period of time.

Phases 2, 3 and 4 are very opaque. There is no transparency. No one knows exactly what is going to happen. We need a commitment today that phases 2, 3 and 4, because we are talking about modular builds, can be designed and put into the current footprint, if that is possible, or if it needs a new planning application, that process can start so that in a matter of a year or 18 months, we can move on.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. If memory serves, in a previous incarnation in a previous life, he raised this issue at an education committee. That is going back some time. I thank him for raising and outlining the issue in relation to Lucan Community College. The Department of Education and Youth is progressing the delivery of a large timber frame modular extension to Lucan Community College. The project will deliver nine additional classrooms, a science laboratory and preparation area and a design and technical graphics room. Construction has already commenced on site. This delivery method and model of construction offers an extremely high quality, carbon-friendly building, combined with fast delivery. The Department officials are engaging with the school patron, the Dublin-Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, and the school authorities in relation to progressing this accommodation. They remain available to provide support on this project, including the scope for repurposing some of the existing classrooms for special education provision. The National Council for Special Education is engaging with the school authorities in this regard and, of course, the Department has a repurposing scheme which provides €30,000 for start-up grants for each new special class and up to €70,000 for repurposing existing accommodation for special classes.

The Deputy will be aware we recently published €7.55 billion in sectoral investment for education across the education system, and a lot of that is due to a strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and prioritising school building projects which meet the most urgent need. In this regard, there will be a strong special education dimension to projects being rolled out.

The Deputy mentioned the families in the school. There is a project being moved ahead, which I outlined in earlier comments. We, in the Department, will continue to work with the school authorities and the patron body, Dublin-Dún Laoghaire ETB, to ensure needs are met within the Lucanarea.

We see a huge amount of investment going into school building projects across the country. Over the past five or six years, extraordinary funding has been spent on them. However, when it comes to individual schools - as I indicated, this project has been discussed for a long time, going back a number of years to when the Deputy first mentioned it at meetings - it is important we continue to liaise. This first phase of it is on-site. This allows us to get very good high-spec projects built, and to get them delivered in faster time. We have seen many challenges in relation to projects going on too long.

I will endeavour to liaise with Department officials in the planning and building unit to ensure the entire need of the school community, not just this building project but the entire need, is met. I thank the school authorities for their engagement with the National Council for Special Education and the Department in relation to provision of special education, which is a huge core in any building projects we are doing, that is, to ensure we have a provision for special education. I will endeavour to ensure the Department and Lucan Community College continue to liaise so that the needs of the school community and the community at large are met in any new developments.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

The school has had to take the decision to subdivide rooms and to move students in order to have special educational needs classes in a setting that is not going to disturb students. I will give a few quotes from parents. Parents have said that every month that passes is actively harming children, that the school is not fit for purpose, that children with additional needs have been failed despite explicit promises and that children are stressed, more constrained and are falling behind through no fault of their own. There is confusion in terms of earlier responses from the Minister, Deputy Naughton, which said that phase 1 would include special educational needs classrooms but now it does not. Another parent said that it is entirely unclear as to the process and that the lack of transparency here is atrocious.

Another very concerning thing is that because of the overcrowding in the school, on a number of occasions students have been found eating their lunches in toilets when it is raining because they have nowhere inside to go. The staff do not allow this and they are told to move as quickly as possible but some of them go in there because there are radiators and it is a warm places to eat. That is not acceptable in 2026. This is the level of the conditions the students are being forced to endure. There are no areas for kids to have extracurricular activities and to meet and have casual chats that make school days, days to remember. It is all about into class and out of class. There is no room to engage and have that quality of life in the school environment. It is heartbreaking to see this for the children.

What we need are firm commitments in respect of the phase 1 modular building, the timber framed and well-insulated building. That is all well and good but in the original outline of the building, can we get clear answers from the Department that phase 2 can be commenced very quickly, because it is modular? The same goes for phases 3 and 4. Can these be designed and planned so they can go in a lot quicker and that in 18 months to two years, we can see the buildings?

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for outlining the challenges within the school community as well. It is important we have the best possible school environment for all students. Every student, no matter what their ability, must have a positive experience within the school. Phase 1 of the project is on-site and for delivery. The quality of the building going in is top class, as I understand it. That is moving at pace. The Deputy is looking for clarity in relation to how we are going to do the next phases of the project. I will liaise with the planning and building unit in the Department and with the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to ensure we get clarity for the school community, the school authorities, the ETB and the parents and students as fast as possible in relation to phases 2 and 3 and the building of it. I will endeavour to do that.

I take the points the Deputy raised in relation to the toilets and so forth very seriously. They do not rest easy with me. I will bring those points back to the Department and ask it to liaise with the Deputy in relation to the next phases. It is important the phase that is under way is completed as a matter of urgency because it shows that we intend to invest in Lucan Community College now but also into the future so that we best serve the future needs of the school and the community. I will endeavour to do that.