Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Too efficient. I appreciate that. I did not hear my colleague's contribution, but the Enable Ireland Sandymount School has 40 students. Each one is medically dependent. There is a lovely, warm, caring atmosphere in the school. The staff go above and beyond for the current students. For five of the children, their class is closed because there are serious leaks in one of the rooms in the middle of the hall. This means the school has had to move the class to the library. This is of course far from ideal. The five students are all in wheelchairs and the classroom they normally use is a soft play room, which allows the children to get out of their wheelchairs, stretch and reset themselves. The students need the breaks from the wheelchairs as they are really important for them and, as I said, the students are very vulnerable. The breaks out of the wheelchairs cannot take place in the library. This also means the library itself has been decommissioned and is not accessible to the rest of the school, which is again far from ideal. The school hall is also closed due to leaks, which have been getting increasingly bad over the last six months. The Department is aware of the conditions and the conditions are dire for the students and school staff. The principal and staff go above and beyond day in and day out.

5 o’clock

There was an issue with school transport at the start of the year which caused huge distress for everyone. Now we have these particular issues and they need to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

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