School Facilities Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West I welcome the opportunity to speak about Tiernascragh National School and am delighted that the Senator mentioned Kiskeam, the centre of the universe. Joking aside, I welcome the opportunity to take this issue on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, who is responsible for the capital programmes. As the Senator is aware, Tiernascragh National School in County Galway is a mixed Catholic school, located within the Portumna school planning area. It has 53 pupils enrolled for the 2025-26 school year, according to the information I have. The school has an additional school accommodation application with the Department for one mainstream classroom. The Senator will also be aware that the Department recently published the €7.55 billion national development plan, NDP, sectoral investment plan for the period 2026 to 2030. This places a strong emphasis on maximising existing capacity and the prioritisation of school building projects to meet the most urgent needs. In this regard, there will also be a strong emphasis on special education. In relation to the issue raised by the Senator, it is important that the Department works with the school's authorities. In her next contribution, will the Senator tease through the issues with the community hall and its facilities? In some instances where there are capacity issues, the Department is looking at community facilities to meet the immediate needs of the school community, but it will always been on a short-term basis while we try to find a permanent solution. In the past, we would be looking at a permanent or modular building. The Department is always looking to ensure that the best possible value for money is obtained. Given the ongoing need across the entirety of the school estate and despite the fact that billions have been put into the system in the recent years, value for money remains important. We need to get a sense of this. This small school has grown its enrolment over time, which is a testament to the work done by the school leadership and the whole school community. It is a great sign. I would like to tease out where this school is at. I will go back to the Department and ask it to engage with the school authorities. The Senator might outline the position, and I will respond in my subsequent contribution. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18