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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

Pelletstown school accommodation

Summary

Deputy Coppinger raised the risk of Pelletstown Educate Together national school being evicted without a permanent or temporary building in place. The Tánaiste said he would ask the Education Minister to respond on the specific case.

In the programme for Government there is much talk about school provision and proper planning. Today I received a reply to a parliamentary question confirming that Pelletstown Educate Together national school will be evicted by the developer in the new year from its land, and yet the permanent school building has not even received approval and there is no temporary building. Does Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil think that if they put thousands of people living beside a railway line that it is some sort of magic contraceptive? It should not be news that if one builds thousands of apartments and houses, a few years later one may need a primary school. While I blame the developer for his utter greed in turfing people off a potential site, I also blame the Tanáiste, because this huge area of Pelletstown, Rathborne and Ashtown was planned for many years. This has been going on since the 1990s, and we are fighting for schools to catch up with the thousands of housing units. Can the Tanáiste tell people in the Dublin west, Rathborne-Pelletstown, area what he intends to do about this in the new year?

Comment on this
Simon Coveney The Tánaiste Fine Gael

I will have to ask the Minister for Education and Skills to come back on that particular case because I do not have the detail on it. We are adding about 20,000 primary school places every year because of the type of population growth the Deputy is talking about. The Government is investing heavily in doing that but there is obviously a particular case here that needs a specific response from Government. I will ask the Minister, Deputy McHugh, to get back to the Deputy on this issue.

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