Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Regional Group. I compliment the Department of Education and both Ministers, Deputy Foley and Deputy Madigan, who are present to listen to what is being said. It has been an unprecedented challenge for everybody in education. Mistakes have been made, but I have yet to see any particular aspect of Covid where mistakes were not made along the line. The main point is that a lot of lessons have been learned.

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and one of the areas of concern to me is special needs education. I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on joining us last week and giving us a very comprehensive one-to-one engagement on the issues relating to Covid and special needs education. I could point out things that are wrong, but she has been told today about lots of things that are wrong. On a positive note, in Tuam in my constituency, St. Oliver's Special School has been built. It is a €6 million investment and I hope it will be opened in the coming weeks. It is a great ray of hope for parents, children, families and staff in Tuam. I compliment everybody involved in the project. I look forward to seeing the school up and running. I had a sneak preview of the layout of the school and it is ideal for education in these Covid times. I look forward to the school opening.

In the time remaining I will concentrate on the fact that one of the lessons we need to learn is how we improve the situation and make sure that buildings are correct and that a holistic approach is taken to education when we are faced with a challenge. We should be thinking about the leaving certificate of 2022 now and how we are going to deal with it. I hope we will be past Covid, but the students will have had a legacy of a lack of school time. How will that be addressed going forward? We must plan for the future for next year's cohort.

Autism units are non-existent in some areas. I urge the Ministers to look at the issue right throughout the country. We do not have any autism units in schools in Loughrea in my constituency. It is important we prioritise existing schools to make sure they get their fair share of services as well. Rosedale School in Galway has had a tumultuous time in the past 12 months. Everybody involved, including parents and teachers, want to make sure the school will get as much support as it can because of the huge amount of reparation and catching up that remains to be done. While remote learning is good, it is not available to everyone, and until it is, we cannot rely on it. We must make sure we bridge the gap in that regard.

My final comment is directed at the Minister, Deputy Foley, and it is on the school building programme. We have a number of school building projects in Galway. The Gaelscoil complex in Athenry needs to be fast-tracked to make sure we get the school communities out of the current poor accommodation and back into modern facilities. I make the same point about the national school development in Tuam, the new Trinity Primary School, which will amalgamate three schools. The latter project must be fast-tracked. A design team must be appointed as we need to get on with the work. It takes too long to get these projects going. An extension is needed for a school in Athenry which has a plethora of prefabs all over the place. I know the tenders are back and I urge the Minister to make an appointment as soon as possible once the report on the tenders arrives in the Department to make sure the project gets going.

See this speech in context