Tense emails between Harris and Foley over school crisis revealed
Simon Harris was furious over a series of delays to a school project in his own constituency. In emails, Mr Harris grew increasingly frustrated over what he said was poor communication, unexplained hold-ups, and the dire lack of secondary school places in Co Wicklow.
The saga began in March last year when Mr Harris, then Further and Higher Education Minister, wrote personally to Education Minister Norma Foley asking why a 1,000-student school in Greystones had been delayed.
An email from Mr Harris said: “[The school] has been advised that its new build project has been placed ‘on hold’ due to ‘capital funding pressures’. However, no date has been provided for how long this project will be left ‘on hold’.”
The Taoiseach asked for a date when the project would be taken “off hold” and added: “I would be most grateful if you could provide further information regarding the ‘capital funding pressures’ in the [department].”
In response, Ms Foley said the department was working in a “very difficult and challenging environment” in the construction sector and that negotiations on funding were ongoing.
In May, Mr Harris’s office forwarded an email from Greystones Community College to Ms Foley. In it, the school principal had asked Simon Harris’s constituency office: “Would you be able to do anything for us on securing an indicative timeline from [the department] for the building works for our permanent building?
“I know [you] had offered to meet with our parent leadership team (which we are grateful for), but they have asked me to inquire if you could follow up to see if we can get some sort of timeframe.”
By October, however, Mr Harris’s office was struggling to get any new information. An email from his office explained how it had forwarded multiple questions to the department but “no reply was ever received”.
The email said: “I would appreciate if you could assist in getting an update… as we have had no luck on our end.”
In November, Mr Harris asked for another update and a briefing note as he planned to visit the school. An internal Department of Education email said: “Unfortunately it is not possible to provide a briefing note due to the short notice.”
However, a short update was eventually prepared saying the project remained at tender stage. By February, Mr Harris’s patience was wearing thin.
He wrote personally to the secretary general of the department, saying: “The issue in Greystones is very clear. We do not have enough secondary school places for the primary school population.
“There are a number of projects and proposals that would address this but the most important, bar none, is to commence the construction of Greystones Community College.”
Another message to Ms Foley that month complained about the lack of information being provided to him on what was happening.
Mr Harris wrote: “During [a] meeting, it was requested that the Build Unit [of the department] provide a regular, written update, to inform TDs as to ongoing work.
“However, disappointingly these written updates have not yet begun. I would be grateful if the department would see to ensuring that written updates are provided reliably and consistently.
“Thank you in advance for the time and effort I know you will give this matter, and I look forward to receiving positive news on this front shortly.”
Over the ensuing months, regular updates were sent to local politicians.
In April, Harris became Taoiseach following the surprise resignation of Leo Varadkar. By June, it was full steam ahead for the school with Mr Harris writing to Ms Foley to congratulate her on the “fantastic news” which had been “well received” by his constituents.
Asked about the records, a Department of Education spokesman said it had, since 2020, invested close to €5bn in schools. He said the contractor for Greystones Community College was now on site with the duration of the building work expected to be around 65 weeks.
I have been failed twice, as a child and now as an adult. Reform is needed
● Victim’s anger after legal battle to obtain name of paedophile cleric who abused him as a small boy
Aman who was raped by a priest 45 years ago when he was only four has finally been given the name of the abuser. Nearly three years after gardaí told Jonathan Randall they had identified the priest, who is now dead, he has been provided with a name — after taking legal action.
The Chief State Solicitor’s office has told Mr Randall’s lawyer that the man identified as having raped him during a holiday in Bettystown, Co Meath, was Joseph Michael Steele.
The Belfast-born priest was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 1996 for “systematically” abusing 10 children over the course of 14 years in the North.
Steele also pleaded guilty in 2012 to sexually abusing two other children, a girl and a boy, between 1967 and 1983 in the North. However, sentencing was adjourned in May 2012 after a psychiatrist raised concerns about his mental health.
He died on November 17 that year, aged 72, as a “retired Catholic priest” living in Terenure, Dublin 12, according to information released to Mr Randall’s legal representative, solicitor and senior counsel Stuart Gilhooly, of HJ Ward LLP.
In 2019, Mr Randall went to gardaí over the abuse he had suffered as a child, and detectives later identified Steele as the suspect.
Mr Randall took An Garda Síochána to court to try to learn his name after a request to the DPP was unsuccessful. Following a hearing as part of the legal action, the Chief State Solicitor’s office named Steele.
“I shouldn’t have had to go through what I did for three years to find out this man’s identity, especially considering he’s dead. It has given me some closure to finally have a name,” Mr Randall said.
“It’s a major failure of the State to treat a survivor in this way. What kind of a precedence does it set for people coming forward in future? I’m sure I’m not the only person who was too young to be able recognise or identify what happened to me, and by whom, by evil men like him.”
Mr Randall had suppressed the memory until 2018. In June 2019, he walked into a south Dublin garda station and gave a detailed statement. His complaint was transferred to Co Meath, and in October 2021 he was told gardaí were confident they had identified his abuser.
They were unable to provide him with a name, but told him there was a lot of material about the suspect online as he was well known and his crimes had led to a political fallout and involved extradition requests.
This led Mr Randall to believe it was paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, who, like Steele, was extradited from the Republic to the North to face sex abuse charges.
Through his legal representative, Mr Randall demanded that the DPP release his abuser’s name. This was declined, leading to his legal action.
“I shouldn’t have had to wait for three years. My solicitor will now seek the full garda file,” he said. “I’ve been failed twice, as a child and now as an adult.
There needs to be reform of the system.”
Mr Randall said his life was upended after he was led by another child to the priest, who raped him.
He has had to leave the workforce after struggling with his memories of the attack, has been diagnosed with PTSD and is on disability benefit.
“It’s the State’s fault that I’ve been left too angry to work right now. I have a degree and I think I could be advantageous in the workplace, but not right now,” he said.
Mr Randall confirmed he intends to take a legal action against the religious order Steele was attached too.
In August 1979, the Randall family took a holiday cottage in Bettystown. Mr Randall was with his mother and baby sister, and his father was back and forth working in Dublin.
“I was befriended by an older boy. He would take me out to play on the beach,” he said. “On the second or third day, he took me around outside the other cottages, pointed to one of them and told me that the man in there ‘did things to little boys’ and that I would be scared if I ever went in there. After taking me out for a couple of days, he then led me to that cottage.
“I remember him leading me through the door, telling me someone wanted to see me and had chosen me. The person waiting in that cottage was a middleaged man looking dishevelled and I was already afraid from what the boy had warned me about him.
“The man told me not to be noisy, that no one would hear because my father had gone away and my mother would not be able to hear me anyway. The boy told me that I would not like what was going to happen, but that it was ‘my turn’ and that he had ‘had to do this lots of times’.”
Four-year-old Jonathan was then held down and raped.
He managed to wipe the abuse from his memory, but he believes it has haunted and negatively affected the rest of his life.