Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I expect Deputy Lawless, my constituency colleague, to join me. I hope he is running across the corridors as we speak. Tá an t-ádh linn scoil cosúil le Gaelcholáiste Mhaigh Nuad a bheith againn i dtuaisceart Chill Dara. Is scoil iontach í. Cuireann sí go mór le deiseanna oideachais i Maigh Nuad. I am glad to share my time and am glad that an Teachta Lawless has made it. I give my best wishes to Deputy Durkan, who is at home with Covid. He would be here if he could, as would Deputy Catherine Murphy, if she were free.

Gaelcholáiste Mhaigh Nuad is a multi-denominational secondary school that came from the heart of the community in north Kildare and from grá don teanga i gCill Dara. There is a passion in Maynooth and beyond to nurture it. It is a credit to the príomhoide, Mícheál Ó Ceoinín, na múinteoirí involved in its running and the management. It is blessed to have a parents' body that has been diligent in its communication with all Oireachtas Members about the Gaelcholáiste and the health and safety concerns they have for their children. We have been waiting for this school for 20 years in the north of the county. In this phase of the development of the school, it is operating upstairs in a shopping centre, above Dunnes Stores in Manor Mills in Maynooth, with dangerous roads for the children to cross to do most of their four subjects. They have to go up to the old school building where Maynooth Post Primary School and Maynooth Community College were. That is why I mentioned health and safety.

We have been here before in Maynooth. Transition year, TY, students from Maynooth used to do part of their education above the shopping centre in Maynooth and there was a big worry about the children going up and down. The school opened two years ago with 30 students. It now has 60 and will have over 100 this September. Parents are naturally anxious about them going up and down. I have been inundated with reports.

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