Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While the Minister’s reply is positive, I hope her officials will look at the bricks and mortar building. The day I visited, we stood outside the classroom in which fourth, fifth and sixth class pupils are being educated. The whole PVC wall can be rocked over and back. It is not safe or sturdy and needs to be replaced. I am not a builder and have no engineering experience - the Minister and I are both from the teaching profession – but the obvious thing to do is to remove the PVC panels and most of the windows, which are mostly single glazed, and replace them with bricks and mortar that can withstand the wild Atlantic weather that blows in across County Clare every day of the year. I welcome the news of the modular build for the SET classroom. I am pitching to the Minister and her officials, in whom I have every faith, that they take a fresh look at the full school building. It goes beyond emergency works and ad hocfunding schemes. I hope the matter can be looked at holistically because the building in Kilmurry McMahon National School, which was built in 1966, is no longer fit for purpose and needs a full overhaul.

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