Ms Carmel de Grae:

Táim thar a bheith buíoch as an deis labhairt le chuile duine anseo inniu agus ár dtuairimí a nochtadh. I wish to thank everybody, the TII, NTA and all of the groups here today and particularly the members, agus bhí sé go hiontach go raibh cúpla múinteoir ann as they had a great understanding of the realities we are facing. I also thank our local Deputies, that is, Deputies Shortall, Rock and Ellis, who are supporting us here today. We were delighted to be able to outline the issues and catastrophic consequences including the noise. In one small example of this, the hurley maker in Na Fianna works around our school times. He only uses one saw at a time and is also a past pupil.

We were very disappointed not to be informed in advance of the public launch. We got a letter the day before explaining that something would be happening. We had to reach out to TII ourselves and in fairness, while we have had a meeting with TII, we had to request it. There was no pre-consultation with us as - we believe - important stakeholders in the area.

The delay and the uncertainty will cause us to lose numbers. School enrolment is a delicate balance and process and if these students are lost to us, they also will be lost to the Irish language. As noted earlier, even our most dedicated and loyal parents must put the needs of their children first and we cannot argue with them on that point. An extension, which was mentioned, unfortunately would not help us. If the metro is produced for a community that no longer exists then it really is not particularly helpful.

We are delighted that the committee will accept the invitation to visit us. We will have the kettle on and will have our students ready. Members should believe our students will articulate this even better than we have done. We also will show the spot we have reserved where we would like to build a sports hall in conjunction with our partners, Na Fianna and Scoil Mobhí. That is an issue that we would prefer to be talking about to a committee rather than this topic. We have a wonderful symbiotic relationship with those organisations and to endanger this would be a pyrrhic victory for anyone to produce at that expense.

Ar scáth a chéile a mhairimid agus ba mhaith linn leanúint ar aghaidh go dtí an chéad bhliain in 2028. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.