Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

To allow for physical distancing, as well as refurbishments we need extra physical space. This was true prior to the onset of Covid-19, where we had the most overcrowded classes in western Europe. They were unacceptably overcrowded. Now that is completely intolerable and incompatible with human health. While I understand refurbishment using libraries and sports areas is not ideal because at some time we will need those spaces again, we need additional physical capacity. There needs to be an ambitious and aggressive plan of locating additional physical space.

I am sure other Deputies could point to this. It is like the point I was making about empty properties. In the middle of Dún Laoghaire, a former further educational college has been sitting empty for six or seven years. It was a scandal before the Covid pandemic but now it should be used to provide additional space for schools. On the Merrion Road beside St. Vincent’s Hospital is a building called the Seamark Building, which has probably been empty for a decade. It is about as big as ten or 15 big school halls. That is how big it is, and it is just sitting there empty. It is outrageous. I think Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has significant empty space in Cherrywood. That is one administrative area, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, with which I am familiar.

This is against a background where many of our school students are in prefabs. Gaelscoil Phádraig in Ballybrack has been using prefabs for decades. How can that school expand? Over the summer, as a matter of urgency we need to get out and get these spaces that are sitting empty and use them to provide extra capacity for our primary and secondary schools, and indeed for some of our universities.

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