Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I am a maths and physics teacher and co-founder of a school in Ennistymon called Mol an Óige Steiner national school. It has been in prefabs for more than 16 years, and although it got approval from the Department for buildings, it is waiting for one letter from the Department so that it can start the tendering process. My son is 21. He went to school at four years of age and we are still waiting with those prefabs. It would save the Department money if we built permanent structures for these schools that have approval instead of wasting money on renting prefabs.

The Department of Education and Skills is promoting Aistear and the primary school language programme, which I am sure the Minister is well aware of. This is a perfect time to implement this programme because it requires the same things that we required during the Covid-19 pandemic, which are younger children needing extra staff in the classroom and more space outside. I appeal to the Minister because this is an opportunity not just to make children happier and healthier but also to help the Department to implement the Aistear programme. I wish the Minister the best of luck.