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Cllr Paul Ward is very pleased to announce that the new school building project for St Josephs in Kilcock is now approved to go to tender in March.
“Great result for the Principal Anne, the staff, parents but most importantly the pupils! Thanks to James Lawless TD who I have been working on this with and who brought this up directly with the Minister of Education last week!”
This past week I called on the Minister for Education to act now before schools in the Naas area face an accommodation crisis. There is an urgent need for the Minister and his Department to issue the tender to commence building the new site which will be used by Naas Community College. This is the major delay and as a result of the Ministers lack of action, by 2020, 800 students in the Naas area will be affected.
I have raised this matter in the Dáil with the Taoiseach and Minister for Education. The Minister claims his Department is reviewing its programme for capital expenditure in 2018 and 2019. There should be no need for a review; the department already committed to the school when they ordered it to open up four years ago. The tender must be issued to avoid a schools crisis in Naas,
Naas Community College has opened, the patron has a site bought and is ready to go already. Planning permission has been granted by Kildare County Council but we are now facing a situation in which 231 students applied for places in September 2017 and 111 were turned away. There is a primary school, Naas Community National School, co-located on the same temporary accommodation. If this continues, by 2020 we will have 800 students in temporary accommodation that was created for 500. We urgently need the tender to be issued so that the school can proceed to build immediately without any further delay.
For months I have campaigned alongside many concerned parents to lobby the Minister to have his department issue the necessary tender, and I will continue to do so until the tender has been issued.
You can read my transcript of my debate here
James Lawless TD recently questioned the Taoiseach on the need for better public transport for the greater Dublin area.
“Currently the car parks at the Sallins and Naas station are averaging 165% to 175% capacity and other stations in the area experience similar problems. With the car parks operating so far over capacity, anyone arriving past 7.30 a.m. would have no chance at a space. I have been advised by Irish Rail that they would gladly expand the car park, provided the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport allow funding. With this, I requested the Taoiseach to ask the Minister to examine the issue.”
“In response to my question the Taoiseach agreed that passenger numbers on the train have now exceeded the levels of before the financial crisis yet there has been no action to improve the lines. The Taoiseach indicated that this matter will be considered as a part of a 10 year investment plan that the government intends to publish in the coming weeks. The plan seeks to upgrade train lines significantly through additional carriages, electrification and car parks.”
James Lawless TD has said that greater support for Young teachers is vital for Ireland’s Education system.
James said, “I attended the conference of the Irish Science Teachers Association in Maynooth approximately six months ago where I again heard a call for greater emphasis on STEM subjects, a greater input into STEM teaching and a greater number of STEM graduates to enter the system.”
“I also met representatives of the Institute of Physics who had similar concerns. The issue is manifesting in a scenario where many science subjects are being taught by teachers whose primary degree may not have been in that particular science subject. For instance, a lot of biology teachers may be teaching physics or chemistry, which some refer to as the physical sciences. This is not ideal for a number of reasons. We also see gender imbalance. We see less of the physical sciences being taught in some girls-only schools. In some schools, these subjects are not even being offered. A lot of this links back to the difficulty we have in retaining or attracting STEM graduates into the profession at present and, despite numerous reports, the lack of action from Government on it.” Continue reading “We must support Young Teachers – James Lawless”
James Lawless TD spoke on the Waste Reduction Bill at Committee Stage last week. You can read the full transcript of James’ contribution here.
James said, “I support the principles of this bill, and we have consistently been and remain a firm defender of Ireland’s natural environment. We firmly support efforts to encourgage recycling and reduce waste”
“Recently I met with Margaret Brady of Zezuz Packaging to learn about their new product, the first compostable cup, which can be disposed of in the ‘brown’ bin, with other compostable waste. The technology and the products are already there. It remains to support them in the marketplace.” Continue reading “James Lawless TD speaks in favour of Waste Reduction Bill”