Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like the Deputy, I strongly welcomed the decision by the Minister to award patron status within the post-primary school system to Educate Together. As in County Wicklow, there is a significant number of Educate Together primary schools in County Galway. As those children move through the primary school system, I fully expect parental demand for a post-primary option to increase. As I said, another round of new school announcements is expected in response to the very serious democratic challenges arising in the school system. I have every confidence that Educate Together will feature in these announcements, if parental demand is sufficient. The statistics certainly suggest we can expect to see a significant number of secondary schools opening throughout the country under the patronage of Educate Together.

See this speech in context