Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the officials from the Department of Education. It was great to hear the update from Mr. Loftus that the Department provides for "almost 1 million students and over 100,000 staff," which make us realise the mammoth task achieved by the Department.

I acknowledge the speed with which additional accommodation is provided, as I have seen in my own area. I represent the Roscommon-Galway area and I am based in Ballinasloe. I have seen what has been done in terms of additional accommodation and its speedy delivery.

Mr. Loftus mentioned modular units using precast concrete and timber frames. The units are of extremely high specifications. Anyone who has seen the units that have been added to schools has been very impressed with their quality.

As the witnesses are probably aware, I have raised a number of issues last week and this week. Last week in the Seanad, I tabled a Commencement matter on school capacity in the Ballinasloe town area. Some of Mr. Loftus's team may have seen that. I will give a very brief overview. As the Department will be very aware, there are three primary schools in Ballinasloe. Scoil an Chroí Naofa is probably the very first subject I spoke to the Department about when I became a Senator. I have been a Senator for three years and the project has only now had its planning approved by Galway County Council and the attached conditions were quite stringent. Recently I spoke to the school's principal and the board of management. The design team is submitting this matter to the Department for review. Even if a green light is given to everything, it will take three years for the school to be built. The school has 300 students and 36 children are on its waiting list so the school is urgently required. People have waited 27 years, since the schools were amalgamated, for the school to be built. I am sure the Department is fully aware of this.

I enjoyed hearing about how many schools are not needed in Dublin. We need a hell of a lot of schools in regional areas because our population is growing. We have a high population in my area. The first school I mentioned, Scoil an Chroí Naofa, has 36 children on its waiting list and 300 students attending. It will take three years for a new school to be built. The school will also have to decant all of its students and teachers when the new build starts. At our second primary school, Creagh National School, two additional classrooms were awarded funding over the summer, which is very welcome. The school has 440 pupils and there are 23 children on its waiting list. The third primary school is the Gaelscoil, which recently was granted DEIS status along with Scoil an Chroí Naofa, which is DEIS 1. The Gaelscoil takes children from all over County Galway and the surrounding counties.

I have a few questions for Mr. Loftus, the first of which relates to the priority commitment in terms of the Department of Education reviewing what the design team submits for the new build. I ask that this is progressed with Galway County Council and deemed a priority project for the start of 2024. We can take it that the next number of months will be spent reviewing the design. We have worked so hard and there are many stringent planning conditions. I ask for Mr. Loftus's team to focus on this matter.

Last week, as part of my Commencement matter in the Seanad, I asked for a meeting to be arranged between the school planning unit. The Ballinasloe school planning area consists of 17 schools. Eglish National School is a small school with principal and 23 students. Fifteen of the 23 children are from a Traveller background and six from two refugee families who hope to settle in Ballinasloe. That does not take into account that 100 additional social housing units that will come on stream. According to the last census, we have 534 children under the age of four in the locality. I am at a loss about where they will go. There are six children from two refugee families in schools in Ballinasloe. I know that Mr. Loftus is probably aware of this matter.

Again, I request that a meeting be held between the school planning section in the Department of Education, the GIS teams and the educational welfare officers who I know from speaking with the manager are stressed. The parents are stressed. They have acknowledged the strain in the Ballinasloe townland area. I ask for support for this, for the school principals in that area and for those three national schools but also for the schools in the surrounding area namely, Killure, Ahascragh and Clontuskert, and in Moore, Newtown and Creagh in County Roscommon. They have all indicated they are at full capacity. What are we going to do when we have additional students when September comes? I cannot say that I have a plan. I want the Department to tell me what the plan is and how we are going to support those families.

In regard to special schools, St. Teresa’s special school in Ballinasloe has four additional classrooms, two of which were opened two years ago and two more are coming on stream now. This is wonderful. How does the Department, under planning and building, link in with transport? The issues here are that when we do not have capacity, like that bus that has to bring children to Eglish that the Department is going to review, how does it link in to say to them, "There is no capacity in the town". We need to get bus capacity to support these children. How does the Department link in to that? In the case of St. Teresa’s, we now have children in Loughrea, Gort and Tuam with extreme, complex to severe, special needs, who cannot go to class at the moment. I know there are severe pressures but how do we support and how does the Department link in to that?

In regard to Castleblakeney National School-----