Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)

I raise the issue of Scoil an Chroí Naofa National School in Ballinasloe, which serves one of the most deprived populations in the country. Some 300 children go to the school. The older school is from 1937 and the newer school is from 1973. When I had an occasion to visit in January, it was colder inside the school than it was outside. The difficulty we have now is that the school cannot take in any new students. People with means who can travel to other schools outside of the town are leaving. We are getting a concentration of deprivation in the centre of Ballinasloe. We need to progress the building of this school. It had planning issues for nearly 22 years. They have been resolved. The project is at stage 2b planning in the Department of education. I urge the Government to look at fast-tracking Ballinasloe's Scoil an Chroí Naofa National School given the circumstances it finds itself in.

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