Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's reply. I visited the school when it was giving July provision for students with autism. It is doing tremendous work. I question the health and safety of the building and classroom conditions. The classes are in prefabricated buildings. There is a lot of damp in the building. These children have very particular needs. Some need to be isolated for part of the day because of the risk of infection. It is unacceptable that children with those needs are asked to be in that kind of environment day in and day out and that staff have to deal with that. There is no outdoor space. There is chaos when buses come to collect students. I welcome the plan to have this done by next year but the school should be in that building now. It should have started there last September. I hope the Minister will keep this high on the agenda and that there will not be any more delays and that the school can look forward to having this building next year because it is long overdue.

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