Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This June, a school in my parish, Ballyfad National School, will sadly be closing its doors, as the current sixth class student will move on to second level and the remaining student has secured a place in another school for sixth class next September. The Diocese of Ferns notified the Department of Education about the impending closure of Ballyfad school in recent weeks. It is a school in a beautiful setting overlooking Ballyfad Wood, a natural woodland, and the north Wexford and south Wicklow coastline. It has a high-speed broadband hub and community centre next door.

Like any rural school closure, it is a sad event for a building that has served the local community for 74 years since it replaced the old school on this site in 1950. As the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, knows, a rural school is the heartbeat of a local community. This school has so much history. It even produced a local GAA all-star. However, every cloud has a silver lining. There is huge community and political support on both sides of the Wexford-Wicklow border for this lovely building to be repurposed as a school for those with special or additional needs. The physical building is there and is very good. There is most certainly demand in this area, which is close to the Wexford-Wicklow border, between Arklow and Gorey, two very large towns. All we need now is for the Minister of State's Department to please look at this proposal and hopefully implement it.

I was a special education teacher and taught in Gaelscoil Moshíológ in Gorey. We recently gave a full school wing to allow the Department to establish Gorey Hill special school. The Tánaiste, Simon Harris, officially opened it just weeks ago. It has just 24 pupils. It is an excellent school. It will only be taking in six more pupils in September. Many primary schools in north Wexford and south Wicklow have early intervention units, which are basically preschool units for those with special needs. There is substantial demand for special school places in north Wexford and south Wicklow that Gorey Hill School would not have the capacity to cater for. As the Minister of State knows, last week, parents slept outside Leinster House, desperately demanding spaces for their children. As we all know, there has been a failure of successive governments to invest in special education, which has left many children with special needs without places that they urgently require.

I followed the debate last night and listened attentively to the Minister, Deputy McEntee. She outlined plans for the opening of quite a lot of new special schools. I ask the Minister of State, respectfully, if he would consider repurposing the Ballyfad National School building as a school for children with special or additional needs.

See this speech in context