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

I do not take issue with the Minister of State but it is as I expected from the Department. It said a request for a PE hall does not come within the remit of the additional school accommodation scheme, yet it did this 21 times in 21 other schools and in a school just 10 km away from Seamount. Why it decided to single out Seamount for special treatment in denying it this facility is a mystery to me.

I will not relent until I get to the bottom of this. It is deeply unjust. It is limiting the school's capacity to deliver the full curriculum.

The Minister of State rightly mentioned the importance of the PE curriculum. In 2022, the World Health Organization, WHO, described Ireland as having reached epidemic levels of obesity. One in three of our schoolchildren is obese. The National Children's Research Centre tells us all of these obese children are at higher risk of developing comorbidity diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer later in life. Here we have a school that is ready to deliver the PE curriculum to the fullest extent but it does not have the facilities to do so. In addition, it is being requested - implored, one might argue - by the NCSE to develop two ASD units because of the vacuum in post-primary provision across south County Galway. We have two excellent primary level ASD units in Ballinderreen and in St. Joseph's National School, Kinvara. Children in Kinvara are approximately 100 m from Seamount and children in Ballinderreen are between 4 km and 5 km from it. Without Seamount, those children have nowhere to go to access ASD provision when they reach sixth class. The board of management rightly points out that it would be irresponsible of them to provide for children with autism in its school when it does not have an indoor physical activity space available for them. Again, I ask the Minister of State to engage with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and impress upon her the urgency and need for this facility to be provided in the shortest possible timeframe.

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