Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and thank the Labour Party for tabling it. The recent news that the Department of Education has decided to put on hold the construction of 58 school buildings due to financial pressures has come as a huge blow to school communities.

I will speak about one school in my constituency, Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. For more than ten years, there has been talk of a new building for Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in Donaghmede. I know the school well and I have three children who currently attend it. From many years all we, as parents, heard was that we would get a new school. I want to give the Minister a sense of the timeline of that for me as a parent. My eldest daughter was in fourth class when I first heard that we would get a new building. She is now in fifth year and the school still does not have a new building.

The Minister for Education is aware of the conditions in the school. In September 2021, the media covered the story of prefabs that were not fit-for-purpose. I know works have been carried out on these prefabs but they should have been replaced by a new school building. The construction of Gaelcholáiste Reachrann needs to go ahead. It is a fantastic school, which will cater for 600 students in an area where it is badly needed.

Last Thursday in the Dáil, Deputy Ó Ríordáin invited the Minister to visit Gaelcholáiste Reachrann to see the conditions in the school with her own eyes. I hope she takes him up on that offer.

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