Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

I have to say I am deeply disappointed, bemused and bewildered at the Minister of State's response. I got a copy-and-paste, generic response for half the time he was speaking and for the rest, I got a potted history of what I and others involved in the school and community know has happened. I did not get a straight answer.

I do not know how the Minister of State's response tallies with the correspondence I have seen from the Department of education. Approval was granted in January. Correspondence, an email to the principal of the school, stated that the technical team would be in touch within six weeks. That was in February this year. I do not know if we are talking about the same school. This land was purchased. The purchase was completed. I was a councillor at the time and facilitated it. It was purchased by Waterford City and County Council, as a local agent, on behalf of the Department. It was a really good scheme and I welcomed it at the time I was involved. That land is there. Talking about the demographic, the analysis and all that is, to be quite frank, rubbish. Children are being educated in partitioned areas in the sports hall, which is the one indoor facility the school has for recreation. It is not good enough. That is on top of the prefabs that are already there.

This is the only Irish-language-medium education in a town that is a baile seribhíse Gaeltachta. The situation stands in contrast to the Minister's response to Deputy Ward about the importance of Irish-medium education, nuair nach bhfuil spás sa scoil seo gur féidir leis freastal ar an éileamh i nDún Garbhán. It is a Gaeltacht service town and the one Gaelscoil cannot meet the demand in the town.

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