Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister very much for the statement she has just read, which is very comprehensive and sets out an ambitious programme of work. I deeply appreciated her coming to visit my constituency of Galway East. She did a great honour to the teaching staff, parents and organisers of the €16,000 fundraiser that developed the sensory room in Barnaderg National School. The fact that the Minister arranged to visit the school and officially open the facility demonstrates her empathy and compassion. She did not just visit Barnaderg, she also visited Briarfield National School. A visit by the Minister, the person who is managing the Department of education, has a compelling impact on a school.

That is a lovely story, but then we get calls from other schools. I refer to Dunmore National School, which I and others visited. A total of 232 pupils attend the school. In many ways it is a large school. The school is very challenged in that it has overcrowded classrooms, and a lack of basic infrastructure such as internal toilets and the absence of proper facilities for special educational needs. We must do better in 2025. The situation there must be addressed. The effort to create a positive learning environment in such circumstances is commendable but it should not be necessary.

The next school I will mention is down the road from Dunmore in the town of Tuam, Trinity Primary School. The Minister might be familiar with it because we have engaged with her to a considerable extent in recent weeks. It is a DEIS band 1 school with 800 pupils. The school is an amalgamation of three campuses with the promise that a new school would be developed in the future. The project is being advanced but it can be deeply frustrating financially for the principal and staff to try to manage the three campuses from a staffing point of view and with all the associated bills that go with managing a school. Teaching is stressful enough without having to be worried also about finances. I accept that is all part of it.

Those issues are not isolated ones, as they reflect the broader need to ensure that our ambitions for excellence in education are matched by investment urgency and a follow-through on commitments. I know the Minister shares the goal of equity of opportunity in education. I raise these examples today in that shared spirit. The Minister has my support for her work going forward. No child, teacher or school should be left behind. I commend the Minister on her relentless energy, commitment and dedication to the education sector in the early months of her ministerial tenure and the visits she has made to schools, which is hugely appreciated.

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