I thank Deputy O'Gorman for raising this issue. He has painted a pretty bleak picture of the conditions at Coolmine school, which, as he stated, is quite a large school of 1,000 pupils. It is very concerning and disappointing in this day and age, when we have seen the level of investment in education and in capital works in particular, that a secondary school is experiencing that level of leakage. I can see Deputy O'Gorman is going through his copy of my response. Unfortunately, I do not have an official confirmation in terms of a grant, but hopefully I can give him an update as to where the grant stands. I can confirm that the Department of Education and Youth is in receipt of a current application from the school for funding under the emergency works scheme for roof works, namely to replace the roof due to water ingress issues. The purpose of the emergency works scheme is to provide funding specifically for unforeseen emergencies or to provide funding to facilitate inclusion and access for pupils with special needs. It does so by ensuring the availability of funding for urgent works to those schools that are in need of resources as a result of an emergency situation. An emergency is deemed to be a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment which is sudden, unforeseen and requires immediate action and, in the case of a school, if not corrected would prevent the school or part thereof from opening. The emergency works scheme operates on the basis of a minimal scope of works required to address the emergency situation. The scheme is intended to remedy an emergency situation and usually provides an interim measure until a permanent solution can be delivered under the summer works scheme, which deals with upgrade works to schools. The original application proposed a scope of works seeking to replace the entire roof, which would be deemed an upgrade and not a minimal scope of works. Owing to the relatively recent installation of the roof in question, the school was advised to revert to the original design team to remedy the situation in the first instance. The original contractor repaired the three original leaks on foot of a leak detection test carried out in 2022. However, the condition of the roof had deteriorated further since the time of that test and water ingress issues persisted, as the Deputy has outlined. On 19 March 2025, the Department Education and Youth conducted a site visit to assess the issues at play. The Department advised the school to obtain a new leak detection test. This report was received by the Department in the past two weeks and is undergoing technical review. Once this review has been completed, the emergency works team will engage with the principal of the school in respect of next steps. As the Deputy may be aware, the Minister recently announced details of the climate action summer works scheme for 2026 onwards. The purpose of this scheme is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works which ideally can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The scheme will operate on a multi-annual basis for a number of categories, which could include the provision or upgrade of roofs. The new scheme opened for applications in early May 2025 and all applications must be received by this Department by 5.30 p.m. on 30 June 2025, when the applications window will close. Full details of the new scheme, including the circular and guidance documents for schools, can be found on the Department's website. To come back to the immediacy of the Deputy's question and the urgency of the turnaround of the application that is with the Department, the report in terms of the new leak detection test was received in the past two weeks. That is a short enough window of time. I ask that the Deputy give the Department time to assess that report. I understand the urgency of a decision, especially when the leaving certificate is going on. I suppose the Deputy wants some type of affirmation that at least by the time we go back to school in September there will not be that level of leakage. I will stress the urgency of that to the Minister.

Sentiment score: 0.01

Yes, I will press this. There is also an opportunity for schools to apply for the climate action summer works scheme, although perhaps it does not apply to Coolmine. The emergency works scheme is obviously the right one. I take the Deputy's point about buckets. All we have to do is look at the number of buckets that are gathering water at the moment to discover that there are leaks there. The leak detection test may highlight the exact seriousness of the problem and how much work is involved. It is not good enough in this day and age. There has been record investment in education on the capital side. New schools are being built and additional classrooms provided. There is a lot of construction work going on across the board. The fact that a school that educates more than 1,000 pupils is in this condition is very hard to stand over. I will press it with the Minister. I am hopeful for the Deputy and the students and parents that we will get a positive outcome on this. I will stress the urgency of it and I will come back to the Deputy as soon as I have any feedback.

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I am responding on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, who has the privilege of taking over the issue of school transport, which he is absolutely delighted about. He is very reasonable and I know that he will give this consideration. On the Minister of State's behalf, I welcome the opportunity to respond on this matter. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. Bus Éireann has advised that children residing in Kildare town are not eligible for the Curragh Community College as they are not attending their nearest post-primary school centre. They further advise that there is no existing service from Kildare town to this school. In cases where families have applied to attend their nearest schools with regard to ethos and language, and have been advised by the school authorities that these schools are full, the Department will consider if the pupil is eligible for the next nearest school. While the closest schools may be full to capacity at present, each family must supply evidence that an application for enrolment was made within the deadline specified by the schools and a letter from each of the school authorities confirming that the school was full. This information should be submitted to the school transport section of the Department of Education and Youth for consideration. Contact details for the section can be found on the Department’s website. As the Deputy may be aware, a minimum of ten eligible children residing in a distinct locality, as determined by Bus Éireann, who have applied and paid or entered their medical card details, are required, before consideration may be given to the establishment or retention of school transport services, provided this can be done within reasonable cost limits. The Bus Éireann family portal has now closed for applications and payments. Bus Éireann will now assess all applications and payments received and plan for routes and services for the 2025-2026 school year. Routes may be altered or extended depending on the number and location of eligible children who will be availing of school transport for the following school year. Once routes have been finalised, Bus Éireann will assign tickets for each school transport service. Tickets will begin to issue in mid-July and will continue to issue during July and August. Families who are unsuccessful in obtaining a seat will be notified via email and a refund will issue. Payments or medical card details submitted after the deadline date will be deemed to be late. A late submission of payment or medical card details may mean that a seat is not available. There is a job of work in terms of the Department assessing the levels of interest and applications that have come in. There is the specification requirement of ten eligible students to establish a route. I take the Deputy's point regarding this specific case in the Kildare town and the Curragh. It is great for Kildare town that the new Curragh school will be built there. Perhaps a solution should be considered in the interim. The Minister of State's door is open. If there needs to be a workaround or some type of interim solution, he will at least discuss this with the Deputy and work with the Department on it. I have set out the requirements for establishing new school bus routes.

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I spoke in jest about the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, taking on the brief of school transport. He is very experienced in this. He has been around the block, was a backbencher for a while and battled in similar situations to the one the Deputy has presented. He understands the need for that but there are parameters and guidelines he has to work within. The requirement is for ten eligible students. One could present a case for 100 concessionary students. It is about whether that would suffice for establishing a new route. That will have to be worked out. Because it is an interim solution and many students will eventually go to the newly built school in Kildare, perhaps that is an angle that could be worked on. It is for the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and his Department to assess it. I would absolutely say the Deputy should build a case and bring it to him in terms of the numbers and demand that would be there for such a service. I thank the Deputy again for bringing this to the House.

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I thank the Deputy. Her description of the special school in Bray mirrors my experience of visiting special schools in Cork and elsewhere. I have seen the improvements in these children's education, ability to cope and mental health. What they are able to do is incredible, especially when they have access to additional therapies. That is another part of what we are trying to do. I take that point but my understanding is the intention of the redesignation is not to narrow the scope but to broaden it in terms of who can be catered for in the schools. I will explain more in this response. The Government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with more complex educational needs. Over 300 new special school places are being provided for the 2025-26 school year. Five new special schools are being established in addition to the 11 new special schools opened over the last few years. Special school capacity is also being expanded across a number of special schools. Along with providing additional special school capacity, the Department of Education and Youth and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, consider that it is necessary to look at the profile of existing special schools. It is important to state that it is not the intention to exclude children who require a special school place from accessing certain special school settings, but instead to work to ensure children with complex educational needs can apply to their local special school. There are situations currently arising where children with additional needs travel past special schools in their locality to attend a special school further away. This is not fair on the children or their families. It is down to the fact children cannot apply for admission to their local special school simply because they do not meet the narrow designation of that special school. It is important to state that there is no strict timeline on redesignation being pursued. As indicated in Circular 0039/2025 published in recent weeks, the Department and the NCSE intend to commence work in this area in the coming school year. Any change to designation will proceed on a gradual phased basis and schools will be supported with training, supports and guidance by the NCSE. This is not a new departure. The NCSE reports that over half of these mild general learning disability special schools have since diversified, which means children with more complex needs can enrol in their local special school. A lot of work has been done by these schools to broaden their designation and the Department of Education and Youth will continue to support schools in this endeavour so that more special schools can better support children with complex needs in their local community. Of the 129 special schools nationwide, approximately 30 were originally designated as schools for children with mild general learning disabilities. One of these is in County Wicklow and has just over 100 students enrolled. I take the Deputy's point. It is not a one-size-fits-all. We all know of cases of children with mild learning disabilities who, you would think, might be more appropriately educated in a mainstream school, but it just does not fit. We have seen where they have excelled and done much better when they attend the special schools. I take that point. I do not think that is the intention of what is being done here. The intention is to cater for those children with more severe learning disabilities, stopping them from having to pass their local school and go further afield because their existing special school is at full capacity. That is the intention here. This is being rolled out on a phased basis and there is a lot of work to be done.

Sentiment score: 0.28

I thank the Deputy for raising the question and for giving me the opportunity to reassure the House that the Department of Education and Youth and the NCSE are committed to ensuring all children can access an education suitable to their needs. The Department of Education and Youth continues to engage intensely with the NCSE on forward planning for new special provision to ensure every child has a place in an educational setting best fitted for their educational need. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Where a special school is deemed more appropriate, the options are being kept open in that regard. The establishment of mild general learning disability, MGLD, special schools predated the significant expansion in the range of supports offered in mainstream schools through additional special education, teaching and special needs assistant resources, and through the rapid expansion in special class provision. There are now over 28,000 children being supported in special schools and classes, with the number of special classes increasing by 103% since 2020. Examining the designation of special schools is not about limiting the options of any child; it is about creating options and ensuring that children with more complex needs are afforded the opportunity to attend their school with other local children. This means there will be a variety of different needs accommodated in the school, not just children with one particular need. In my previous response I made the point that the NCSE reports that over half of these mild general learning disability special schools have since diversified. Diversification is the key word. It is about ensuring that these schools that previously only catered for children with mild general learning disabilities will now cater for more. That is key. Deputy Whitmore mentioned the level of consultation. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is in the office next to me. He has spent a lot of time and is dedicated to consulting with the special schools but consulting with parents as well, which is really important. That is something that has happened. I am very sure I can stand over that statement with a fair degree of confidence. I totally accept the points raised and I will relate what was said here back to the Minister of State.

Sentiment score: 0.41

The Deputy raised some specifics regarding the generator, phone outages, etc. I will endeavour to get the Department to come back to her on those points. The written response I have is quite lengthy. I hope it will set out the plan and answer the Deputy's questions. I hope she has time to get to it. With regard to the national development plan, in early April the Government agreed to commence the review process. Following this, my Department wrote to Departments to advise on the Government's approach to improving our infrastructure through the review. As outlined in the programme for Government, energy is a critical priority for investment, alongside housing, water, transport and health digitalisation. The core focus of the review will be to ensure that supporting economic infrastructure can be prioritised to support the delivery of 300,000 additional homes and to boost our competitiveness. I now move on to grid investment. Electricity is vital in daily life and customers need a dependable network to meet current and future needs. This is why investing in the network is key, investing for today and for the future. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, as an independent regulator, sanctions investment in the onshore electricity grid in five year cycles. More than €4 billion investment in the onshore electricity grid was approved for 2021 to 2025. Accelerating delivery of that investment is a priority for this Government and we have a working group under the accelerating renewable electricity task force tasked with doing just that. Regarding planned grid investment from 2026 to 2030, work has commenced on Price Review 6 which will see the CRU sanction the investment in the grid to 2030. A public consultation is expected from CRU by the end of June on its proposals under PR6. This will see major investment in the onshore electricity grid and represents a step change in grid development and investment, a process which will see further progressive scaling during the 2030s to meet future targets. These investments will start to deliver the building blocks on which we will expand our onshore grid out to 2050. The large-scale investment sought as part of PR6 will assist Ireland in maintaining a reliable and resilient electricity network to meet the needs of customers and society. This investment will deliver additional network capacity at all voltage levels, as well as allowing for significant investment in asset maintenance and replacement and measures to improve continuity of supply. Government supports all efforts to maximise the level of grid investment in 2026 to 2030 as part of the PR6 review and any further support sought through the NDP will be actively considered. To deal with the disruptive events of storms and long-term impacts of climate change, as part of Price Review 6, ESB Networks is planning to implement a strategic approach to asset management to ensure that the investments are future-proofed and resilient. ESB Networks will also be part of a mutual association called NEWSAC, the North, East, West, South Area Consortium, which is composed of the electricity companies in Ireland and the UK. These companies provide mutual aid to support each other in the aftermath of storms. On 5 February, Cabinet requested that ESB Networks develop an Enhanced Winter 2025 Grid Resilience Plan as a key measure to be implemented in the lead up to winter 2025. The plan is to enhance the resilience of the grid in the most vulnerable locations for the upcoming winter. The ESB Networks Winter 2025 Grid Resilience Plan sets out actions across several key areas. These include the removal of hazards, post-storm inspection of the electricity network, forestry management, replenishment and expansion of stocks of materials and spares, and resourcing and innovation measures that will build resilience in the electricity network for the winter ahead. Ensuring the climate resilience of communication networks in the immediate term and in preparation for longer-term climate changes is a complex task which will require targeted investment. However, given the liberalised and privatised nature of the communication sector across both fixed and mobile networks, it is primarily for network operators to make the necessary investment to improve their networks’ resilience. Storm Éowyn has drawn attention to the current readiness of networks to withstand severe weather events. The major cause of service outages in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn was the result of cascading impacts mainly emanating from the lack of electricity. I have a further response and will come back in.

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As Deputy Farrell rightly points out, I was just getting into the relevant section on Storm Éowyn so I will come back to that. As I was saying, the major cause of service outages in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn was the result of cascading impacts mainly emanating from the lack of electricity supply to power the network communication networks. Communication networks themselves suffered more limited direct damage. Loss of power was the key issue to cause loss of communication services in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. As electronic communication networks and services are, by their very design, reliant on power at every component. The ESB Networks 2025 plan sets out the preparation for winter 2025 in the event of another storm such as Éowyn. Storm Éowyn did stand out on its own. I know the Deputy referenced other storms but this was peak in terms of previous experiences from an Irish context. There is some good stuff in the grid reliance plan such as removal of hazards, post-storm inspection of the electricity network, forestry management, replenishment and expansion of stock of materials and spares, and resourcing and innovation measures that will build resilience. However, the Deputy has also brought up some good points such as backup generation, rolling out those hubs that were very effective and these are points I will bring back to the Minister.

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