The Taoiseach was Minister for Education and Science in 1999 when Holy Family national school, also known as Curraghmore national school, first applied for a new building. That €5 million project is now 37 months into a 12-month contract and there is no confirmed completion date. The buck-passing between the builder, the local authority and the Department of Education and Skills is not good enough. The rate of progress on the site is not good enough. There are 357 pupils and their families who desperately need this building project to be completed before school returns in September.

There are 16 classes in the school but only ten rooms. The problem for this school is not social distancing but where the children physically will sit to be educated. Last year, they were educated on three separate sites. One of those sites was in Kinnegad, which is a 40 km round trip for pupils. Since the Taoiseach was Minister for Education and Science in 1999, there have, by my count, been a further ten Ministers with the education portfolio. This is a national shambles, not a local crisis. I am asking the Taoiseach to intervene directly in this matter. If no solution is offered, I ask him to come down and explain to the parents of the children in those six classes what the plan is to educate them next year.

First, I certainly will have that matter examined. From my experience, one of the greatest difficulties in getting schools built has been around site acquisition, planning and other issues locally. I do not know the full history of this particular school since 1999, but there clearly are issues and there must have been hurdle after hurdle put in the way. The situation is not acceptable for the pupils, families, teachers or the community. I will ask the Minister for Education and Skills to give me a full report on the matter so that we can see what could be done in the short term as we look to the reopening of schools at the end of August.