Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

She is an extraordinary woman and athlete. I thank the Minister of State for being here to listen to the powerful case I want to make for the provision of an indoor sports hall for Seamount College, a superb school in the heart of Kinvara. It is embedded in the life of the Kinvara community and south Galway. It is difficult to understand why a school that will approach enrolment of approximately 700 students next September does not have an indoor space for physical activity. In addition, it has no indoor space where the whole school community can assemble for any reason. When trying to build cohesion and a sense of solidarity in any community, be it a school or otherwise, the opportunity to get together, meet, socialise and engage is important, particularly in those formative years. We all remember those years as teenagers and how important that was. I and the school management, principal, board of management and school team have repeatedly made the case that it is unacceptable in the early 21st century for a post-primary school to operate without access to an on-site indoor sports facility.

I have engaged with the Department of Education on numerous occasions. In the first chapter of that engagement, I was told repeatedly by the Department and its officials in the building unit in Tullamore that the priority was - this line may even be in the Minister of State's reply - to build classrooms and that was where funding allocations and resources was going. It was not the policy of the Department to provide sports halls for existing schools, even if they were undergoing significant renovations. I am grateful to the Department and the people in Tullamore for the investment they are making in classrooms, science laboratories and staffroom facilities. There is a huge construction project under way in Seamount as we speak. Unfortunately, it does not include a sports hall. When I asked why that was, I was told it was the policy of the Department not to do so as part of the refurbishment or ongoing renovation of schools. I knew that not to be the case because just 10 km away in another excellent school, Gort Community School, an extension and renovations are under way. Some 44 classrooms will be provided along with a new sports hall, which is welcome and most deserved in Gort. About 20 km away in Loughrea in St. Raphael's College, there was another investment recently in new classrooms and a new sports hall. I tabled a parliamentary question asking simply how many schools had also been allocated a sports hall provision as part of the renovation and extension of normal school accommodation. The answer was 21. This has been done 21 times in the past five years, yet, for some strange reason, Seamount College in Kinvara seems to have been excluded from this process.

There is another issue, on which I will expand further when I reply again, around the provision of special education. The NCSE recently requested that Seamount College respond to a dearth of autism provision in south Galway by developing two ASD units, which the board of management and school community are more than willing to do. However, they are unwilling to do so and subject the children who would be part of those units and their current school cohort to a situation in which, if they were accommodated, thery would not have any indoor place for physical exercise.

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