Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I heard what the Minister said. I am on the board of management of Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers in Fearann Phiarais on the north side of Cork city. A new school is being built. We have been waiting for a school for 27 or 28 years. This Gaelscoil in the heart of the north side of Cork is getting a 195 sq. m room. It is not a PE hall; it is too small. A hall of this size will not be big enough to hold assemblies or permit proper PE or indoor sport. This comes at a time when we are trying to encourage more children to take part in PE. One consequence of Covid I have seen is the number of children who stayed in their rooms on PlayStation, Xboxes and phones. We now want to encourage more children to get involved in sport when they need it more than ever. The board of management and the parents' council at Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers had to give a commitment to the Department to raise €100,000 to get the school hall they needed. We are talking about €100,000 from a DEIS school, which is shocking.

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