Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)

There is not a single special educational needs, SEN, classroom at second level in Loughrea, County Galway. There is a rural hinterland with a population of 24,000 served by two secondary schools, not one of which has an SEN classroom. That is wrong in this day and age.An awful lot of students drive through Loughrea town and past their local secondary schools to get to towns like Athenry in order to access the nearest school that meets their needs. That is extremely wrong and we need to urgently address that. I fundamentally believe that, as a society, we should be judged on how we cater for the most vulnerable people in our society. Sadly, that is not happening in Loughrea. Every student in Ireland should be able to access their local secondary school and have their needs met on a fundamental level. In Loughrea, that simply is not happening. It is not the fault of either of the two schools. The teachers, the SNAs and the special needs co-ordinators are doing their level best to try to deliver the best education they can for every child who comes through their door. Sadly, however, they do not have the facilities to do so.

There is a ready-made solution sitting on the desk of the Department of education right now. It is an application for a 13-classroom extension in St. Brigid's College in Loughrea, which includes six SET classrooms. It would address the needs of the vast majority of students in the hinterland who need to access special education in their local schools.

My request is simple. Where there are not adequate facilities for people with special needs in our country, we need to see fast-tracked applications whereby a school puts in an application and it gets fast-tracked where the school has a clear desire to deliver proper education for our most vulnerable students but cannot physically do so with its current buildings. We need to see those applications fast-tracked, and I ask that the Minister of State consider that. I know this is not within his remit, but he might liaise with the Minister and make sure that we deliver for every student in Ireland. We should be judged on how we deliver for the most vulnerable, and we are not delivering in Loughrea right now. I am fed up dealing with that and I want to see action on it.