Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I might also direct my question, which is on education, to the Minister for Education and Skills if that is okay. Last Friday, my Oireachtas colleagues and I were at St. Aidan's comprehensive school in Cootehill. I hope it is a school with which the Minister is familiar. The school has a green flag and a Healthy Ireland flag. It is striking when one walks into the school that it is punching way above its weight in terms of the facilities it has. St. Aidan's has applied to the Department for more than 20 years for a very basic facility, namely, a gym. The school does not have a purpose-built gym or purpose-built canteen facilities. It is a fact that good physical health in schools leads to good mental health. The school has more than 500 students and more than 50 staff, but there is no gym. The school has made numerous applications to the Department's building unit for a gym. We met Mary Ann Smith, a very vocal, active and passionate principal on behalf of her students and staff, who made a very passionate plea to us as Oireachtas Members to ask the Minister and his Department to please acknowledge its call for a gym. I urge the Minister to engage with the principal, Mary Ann Smith, immediately on the school's application for the very basic facility of a gym.

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