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

The programme for Government contains a commitment to carry out an audit of school buildings across the country to ensure we have adequate capacity for future enrolment. There is a major capacity issue presenting in Athenry. Fortunately, we are seeing significant population growth in Athenry and its environs, but the secondary school capacity in the town is simply incapable of dealing with the numbers presenting. It is envisaged that next September there will be a shortfall of up to 100 secondary school places in Athenry. I asked a question in the Chamber two weeks ago about what the Department of Education intended to do about that. It was informed of this demographic challenge two years ago and to date it has not done anything to address the challenge. It needs to be addressed because, as I said, next September, we will have up to 100 children with potentially nowhere to go to school at post-primary level. It also needs to be addressed with an eye on the longer term in the next decade or so, because the numbers are set to grow even further in that period.

See this speech in context