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

It was an interesting statistic in the Minister of State's response that 2,000 of the 2,200 primary schools are located in rural areas. One of the key findings of a recent policy initiative from Fine Gael's policy lab on childcare is that there is a dearth of effective childcare provision predominantly in rural communities. I know that a number of school principals are very proactive in this area, but they are the exception rather than the rule. We need to highlight best practice and perhaps provide the administrative support for schools, for principals in particular, to make this happen. I support Deputy Stanton's request for the 2017 guidelines to issue again. This is exactly what we need to see happening.

Looking locally across my constituency in Galway East, at times it is a shame to see people being denied access to fine, state-of-the-art facilities provided in the past five to ten years, that are the pride of those school communities. That should not be happening. From engaging with the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board, I know that there is a very strong ethos in favour of throwing open the doors to these facilities to people across Galway East. I would again argue that is the exception rather than the rule and we must make it the norm in the future.

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