John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. This matter concerns Wandesford national school, Castlecomer, County Kilkenny. The principal recently wrote to me to inform me of the circumstances that currently exist in the school, where, for 35 years, a prefab has been used as accommodation for some of the pupils. It is an unusual school in that it is one of only two Church of Ireland schools in County Kilkenny; there are not too many Church of Ireland national schools in the rest of the country. It caters for approximately 60 students, mainly from Kilkenny but also from Laois and Carlow. The school has applied for a new school building due to overcrowding for the past number of years and it wishes to know at what stage its application stands. I am interested to hear the official departmental response to the request for this badly needed new school.