Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman for his indulgence. I should have replaced him by now but I want to comment while the Minister is present. This morning, I was in communication with the Minister about Scoil Chaitriona Cailíní. I had a couple of classes from the school in here during the summer and the kids are just fabulous. This morning's development was heartbreaking. The Minister has met the school principal and staff. I appreciate him meeting them so quickly. There is no timeframe as yet but time is of the essence and we need people to be accommodated as soon as possible. As Senator Ó Ríordáin said, the incident is a huge blow to the community. Thankfully, there were no fatalities. We need to be very grateful to the emergency services, the gardaí and the fire services who limited the damage done to the junior school. Extensive damage has been caused to the school, especially to the senior school. I hope that we will be in a position to accommodate the children in the very near future, which needs to happen quite quickly.

I support the Bill. My colleague has spoken on the Bill. I listened to her on the monitor and concur with her comments. We have a few technical amendments but support the Bill.