Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I have another question. The Minister is aware of St. Patrick’s special school in Enniscorthy. She will have visited it. It is a new special school that was opened earlier this year. It cost approximately €11 million to build. The school has now run out of space and is at capacity. It is renting three classrooms from an adjoining school. As the Minister knows, special education is a very important component of our educational system. It is of huge comfort to parents with children with special needs for St. Patrick’s School and many other schools like it to be able to cater for the needs of their children. Its intake normally would have been between 11 and 15. Since the new school opened, however, that has gone up to 30-plus. The children involved coming not just from Wexford but also from the adjoining counties. I do not expect the Minister to have the answer, but what I am seeking is that she give every consideration to an application for the school to be able to accommodate the increased numbers that its forecasts show for September 2023 and the increased needs to which the numbers for this year and last year have given rise.