Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I met last week with the parents and staff of Danu Community Special School. It is clear that the building is not fit for purpose. It has serious design safety issues with students at flight risk on a main road. Its poor design has left the principal without an office. Poor design has left toilets with up to 40% of the classroom space plus a myriad of other design issues.

It is not sufficiently large enough to cope with the number of students with additional needs. Many are unable to access a place until 2024. In fact, there are none this year. There will be one place available in 2024 and one available in 2025 for the entirety of Dublin West. There is no plan for this year's cohort of students.

It is clear that long-term planning needs to start now with regard to children with additional needs in Dublin West and the school of horology is the perfect place. Everybody believes it is a perfect place. I know that some of the Taoiseach's representatives who met with school representatives said the same thing. I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to visit the school to see the issues it has at the moment.

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