Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I appreciate there is a significant amount of money - hundreds of millions of euro - spent on capital projects. Of course, there must be prioritisation and so on and, obviously, the need for expanding schools and special education should be an important prioritisation. However, I would appreciate it if the Minister could consider nuanced issues in schools as well. For example, Claremorris is a wonderful town with two single-sex schools. They had a consultation over several years, which the Department of education in Tullamore oversaw. There is huge support for an amalgamation of those two schools. The primary schools in Claremorris have recently amalgamated. The patrons of Mount St. Michael Secondary School and St. Colman’s College are supportive, as are parents, school management and the chamber of commerce. There is a huge level of support for it. However, the Department issued notice to the schools a number of months ago outlining the criteria the Minister outlined a few moments ago, basically stating that it would not be supporting it in any sense in terms of capital infrastructure. I ask the Minister to consider that report, the demand and the choice that I know the Minister is very keen to support. I ask her-----

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