Member's statement: Nazareth House Primary School: Structural Issues
Member's statement by Mr Pádraig Delargy on .
- MLA
- Mr Pádraig Delargy
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 8 December 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Nazareth House Primary School: Structural Issues
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5284149
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will speak on a matter that will come as no shock to Members, because, for around a week, my party has been clear about the situation at Nazareth House Primary School and the fact that children in my constituency are being denied the opportunity to go to school. Last week, I requested an urgent meeting with the Minister of Education. I got a holding response and have received nothing since. Clearly, the Department of Education's definition of "urgent" is different from mine. No proper solutions have been put in place. Temporary use of a community facility for a time-bound period — until only Christmas — for some children, in confined circumstances, does not cut it. It is not the job of the principal, school staff or parents to do the job of the Education Authority or the Department of Education. In the run-up to Christmas, when schools are thriving and children are excited to be in school, it is particularly bad. While many local people have stepped in to provide some facilities, children are still being denied their fundamental right to teaching, learning and a proper education. The situation should come as no surprise to the Department of Education, because a business case for the roof was submitted in 2017. Over eight years on, nothing has happened. For maintenance work, the first of the EA's own criteria prioritises:
"Projects that meet inescapable statutory requirements such as health and safety, fire protection and statutory obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act",
yet a recent report by the Public Accounts Committee, on which I sit, showed clearly that there has been poor prioritisation by the Education Authority, and I can think of no clearer example than Nazareth House. In Derry, within a mile of each other, there is one school whose roof has collapsed and another that has had to close because its roof is about to collapse. That will not be lost on the people of Derry, particularly when, in the past year, another school in Derry received a fourth pitch despite not having made a bid for it and despite already being awash with other sporting facilities. The people of Derry have been failed by successive DUP Education Ministers. The work should be a ministerial priority. The Minister should meet us, as local elected representatives, and go to Derry to meet school leaders and to give parents answers and certainty about what happens next for the children of Nazareth House Primary School.
412 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.09 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.99).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.04 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.09 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.99 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.01 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.44 |
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.37 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.13 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.05 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:08 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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