David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle’s office for selecting this and I thank the Minister of State for being here to take the debate. I am disappointed the Minister for Education cannot be here but I am sure she is very busy with other work.

Of all Ministers to the House, the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, will appreciate what I will say. We have in Carrigtwohill one of the finest school campuses in the country. It just opened last year. It has a 1,000-pupil secondary school - community college - and two primary schools with 24 rooms each, all on the one campus. They are state-of-the-art, extremely modern and newly-built. It is amazing. If the Minister of State is there someday, he should have a look. It is fabulous to see. I think it is the biggest project the Department of Education has ever undertaken on its own. It has everything. This campus has everything except a playing field.

The perplexing thing is that just behind the schools over the fence is a full field owned by the Department of Education, completely level, recently grassed and completely fenced in. It could be used as a field now but it is not.

I have raised this on a few occasions here. Initially as part of the county development plan, in the initial planning application, it was down as a playing field for the schools. However, it cannot be used by them. I have raised it but I have not gotten a satisfactory response. I have been told that the lands to the south of the site have been designated as a flood retention area as required under the campus flood mitigation design. These lands are designed to retain overflow floodwaters during periods of heavy rainfall and therefore are unsuitable for development. Nobody wants to build anything on this land. It is unsuitable for it as it is a flood retention area. However, at the moment and for the past number of months, it is perfect dry and level - not a dip. It is a playing field, in essence.

I hope the Minister of State has some good news related to my request of the Department of Education. I ask that the Department hand this over to the ETB, which I understand has written to the Department requesting - I do not know if it got a response – that this be made available to the three schools and 2,000 students who can go out there and play football, hurling, soccer and whatever else you play on grass. I know there are hard court areas, basketball areas and so on, and that is fine. I am sure the Minister of State will agree with me that it is hard to beat playing on grass and a grass field for kids to run on and play whatever they are playing.

I truly implore the Minister of State to personally look at this. They are talking about a flood retention area. All over the country we have playing fields that flood and become waterlogged during wet weather but when it is dry, people can play on them. This is no different. I do not think it will ever really flood. I am interested in the Minister of State’s response. I hope he has not a cut-and-paste response, like I have in my hand now, and he will go back to the Department of Education after this and say that this needs to be done.

I also want to say to those in the Department of Education, and I hope they are listening this morning, that the work it has done on this school is magnificent. The way it has been done is a fantastic example of best practice. People are absolutely thrilled with it. Carrigtwohill is one of the fastest growing towns in the country.

The children were using the GAA lands close by, but they are closed for the moment for rejuvenation. They are doing some work on them, so the children cannot use them either. They have nowhere to play now except hard court areas, which truly does not compare at all with a field that is just over the fence. They are looking out at it. How frustrating that must be for the staff, for PE and so on, especially when we look at all the work that has been done with respect to the curriculum and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and so on, and the emphasis on physical education and how many hours of physical education students need – 135 hours of PE of all junior cycle students, for instance, as a minimum.

I am interested in what the Minister of State has to say and I hope he has good news.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Stanton for raising this important matter. I know how passionate he is about the delivery of sporting facilities in conjunction with the schools building programme. I thank the Deputy for allowing me to provide information on the provision of sports facilities at the Carrigtwohill school campus in east Cork.

The Carrigtwohill school campus project, as the Deputy said, is the largest single school building project ever undertaken by the Department and will serve a school community of more than 2,400 pupils. The project was completed in quarter 4 2023 under the Department’s design and build programme and delivered a new 1,000-pupil post-primary school for Carrigtwohill Community College and two 24-classroom primary schools for Carrigtwohill Community National School and Scoil Mhuire Naofa and accommodation, including 14 classrooms across the three projects for children with special education needs. The project also delivered three GP areas, a PE hall in the post-primary school and 13 ball courts in total.

The Department supports and encourages the use of school buildings and school sports facilities outside of school hours for community and recreational purposes, where feasible. I know Deputy Stanton campaigned strongly for opening up school facilities for out-of-use hours.

The land to the south of the site has been designated, as the Deputy said, as a flood retention area as required under the campus flood mitigation design. These lands are designed to retain overflow floodwaters during periods of heavy rainfall and therefore are unsuitable for development as playing pitches.

I feel the Deputy has a strong argument in respect of this issue. Twenty-four hours previous, we had the announcement of one of the largest sports infrastructure programmes. This Government is investing more than €250 million in community sports facilities. Here we have a situation where we have an excessive amount of hard court facility areas - it was referenced that there are 13 ball courts in total - without any provision for grass.

There is certainly a major disconnect between those who play on hard courts and those who play on grass. It is not like for like; it is completely different.

Young people will be at a significant disadvantage if common sense does not prevail in relation to what the local community requires. There can be the provision of a flood retention area, but why not repurpose this into a playing field at the same time? I support the Deputy in the context of what he is requesting, namely that the Department review this. I will take that back to the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the officials, because I am conscious that within our Department the zoning of recreational land is a real challenge now, certainly with respect to competing priorities. Given this is in such close proximity to this enormously large school campus, it would benefit so many and future-proof the school, not just as a centre for education but also as a centre to allow students to enjoy physical activity and play sports at their leisure.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. He has seen my frustration. This is exactly the same response I got last July when I submitted a parliamentary question on the matter. There has been no change. In fact, the reply is an awful lot shorter. It is almost an insult. The final sentence reads: "These lands are designed to retain overflow flood waters during periods of heavy rainfall and therefore are unsuitable for development" as a playing pitch. Who says? Where is the expertise here? It is a green bloody field that is level and is grassed. That is perfect. There is no water on it for months of the year. Most other playing pitches around the country flood and retain water, and people do not play on them when they are wet like that. It does not make any sense at all.

I am delighted the Minister of State is going to back and ask for this to be redone. He mentioned all the playing areas on are on the school's campus that are tarmacadamed and concreted. That is fine, but those surfaces do not soak in any rain either, so one would wonder about that in one sense. The children are looking out at this field. It is just over the fence. It is perfect. It is level, flat and dry for most of the year. If it floods and there is water on it common sense says people should not go on it and people will not go on it. I would like to see the engineering advice which states that it is unsuitable for development as a playing field. Maybe the Minister of State can get it for me or I might make a freedom of information request to the Department on the matter because I feel so passionate about it.

This is a waste of public resources. What is the Department going to do with it? Will we let the field sit there forever, with weeds growing on it, and cut the grass four or five times a year and just keep it as something nice to look at? It does not make any sense. I welcome the Minister of State's understanding and support. I hope the Minister for Education and her officials are listening. They should go down and look at this rather than giving me a cut-and-paste load of rubbish here. That is not intended as a slight on the Minister of State. It does not make any sense and the people in the area are totally frustrated about how this field has been left sitting there and cannot be used. This is badly needed, so let us get on with it.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I again thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I will refrain from reading the scripted closing statement. I agree with some of the points the Deputy made. He has a very strong argument in respect of the issue at hand. I will go back to the Minister and her officials on it. We need proper usage of State land when it comes to the provision of services. As already stated, we are delivering record investment in community sports facilities. We must maximise what we have at our disposal. As the Deputy said, 13 ball courts is excessive compared with what he is advocating, that is, a soccer pitch, a GAA pitch and a rugby pitch that can be used for multiple purposes by the community. It could provide so much enjoyment to these young people, but will also facilitate the teachers, the coaches and the volunteers in the community to have access to an amenity many communities do not have access to because there is such a shortage of land available.

Given the population growth within the Carrigtwohill area, this would serve the school and the community. The Department needs to refocus its efforts in trying to maximise this for dual use. We are not taking away from the flood mitigation policy that it is trying to implement, but we need to look at the broader picture here.