Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Cabinet committee on children, education and disability met two weeks ago. I presented on capacity, and this is one of the issues I flagged. There are guidelines for the use of school buildings, and we would certainly encourage as robust language as possible there. There are two elements here. There are after-school services and there are services that may run at the same time as school. A school may have been able to give a class for ECCE, for example, but may now have expanded, and that is a really difficult situation. I strongly believe we should use classrooms for after-school services. There is an absolute synergy there. Public buildings should be used for the service, whether it is community or private. It is a really good synergy.

Again, we will submit to the Department of Education to put strong language in there. Obviously, boards of management have ultimate decision-making. I have encountered reluctance in my own constituency but, particularly for after-school services, it is a no-brainer. Why have that classroom sitting vacant for three hours in the afternoon?

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