Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support and welcome the Order of Business from the Leader. On behalf of my party, Fianna Fáil, I extend our gratitude to the Cathaoirleach for the good wishes he extended to the global diaspora and I extend our greetings to those who live abroad.

I wish to raise a number of matter. First, I will talk briefly of the 5,000 acres that comprise the Curragh Plains. I have spoken often in this Chamber about the illegal encampments and illegal waste which, sadly, has been left all around the Curragh over the past number of years. I was glad when a consultation on the future management of the Curragh Plains was announced yesterday. This will start on Monday. Kildare County Council is working with the Department of Defence on drawing up a plan to ensure that we preserve appropriately the archeological and the geological and, of course, to work with the Curragh Racecourse and with the Department of Defence. This is an important consultation. I recommend and encourage people to get involved.

I wish to refer to another ongoing consultation relating to the Defence Forces. That consultation is due to close on 19 March. The Defence Forces have been to the fore in supporting Ireland during the Covid crisis. There are many different tasks that they have undertaken and they deserve our gratitude. There are two particular matters that I would like to mention. The first relates to an ongoing story that I have been following in respect of which KFM has done a good job. I refer to sexual assault within the Army and at the Curragh Camp. It was quite shocking to listen to Jonathan O'Brien. Dr. Tom Clonan has written about this matter in the past. There needs to be an independent investigation into the matter and I am calling for that today. In terms of the consultation, I also want to mention that it is so important that recruits have the opportunity to have an affiliation with a union, and PDFORRA makes that case eloquently.

The final point I wish to raise also, funnily enough, relates to the Curragh.I refer to the secondary school in the Curragh. I do not know what genius in the Department of Education thought up the idea of contacting the Curragh Post Primary School to ask it to increase its intake for next year by over 100% by taking in 167 pupils on top of the 125 pupils at present. It is absolutely ridiculous. There are no facilities or place for a prefab. It brings us back to the urgent need for a secondary school for the Newbridge-Curragh-Kildare axis, which I have raised here before. Enough is enough. We need some decision on the size specification.