Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Shane Moynihan (FF), Dublin Mid-West

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht an fhreagra sin. Tuigim nach féidir leis an Aire oideachais a bheith anseo tráthnóna.
With the greatest respect, the general point is being missed here. I am not talking about enrolment pressures. I am talking about the fact that South Dublin County Council has been told to rezone land on the basis of increased baseline population growth. We are then told in the same answer that the D22 school planning area is not necessarily taking account of the foreseen population growth that will be in this area. We know we will be coming back here again looking for possibly modular buildings on a school site with two buildings that have planning permission for the extensions that they were asked to consider last July. This is the opportunity for us to get this right and to get the school buildings in place now rather than limiting the growth of Gaelscoil na Camóige in the future in order to ensure that Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcáin has the space it needs to continue to thrive and, importantly, to champion and to ensure that the facility and the option exists for parents who want to send their children to a Gaelscoil to either receive mainstream education or special education, that they can do so trí mheán na Gaeilge and that there will not be an artificial cap put on the growth of either of those in this instance. We know that the patron has previously indicated concerns around special educational provision in that general area.
When it comes to the question of the practicalities of moving between the schools, I have to ask the Department in all seriousness how it will manage a situation where it has two classes from one school being educated in another. How are they going to manage that in terms of health and safety? While they are on the same site, they are two different buildings. More importantly, they are two different schools. In particular, Gaelscoil na Camóige has waited a long time to have its permanent building. Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcáin has an identity in its own right. While I welcome the Department is willing to look at practical options, the better option here is for it to get the extension that has planning approval put in place, not to find ourselves going back to the well in possibly less than two years' time when people and families start moving into Clonburris.
I urge the Department to reconsider this decision and to work with the school authorities, the patrons and the boards of management to reinstate what was there and to make practical arrangements for growth that we know is going to happen in those populations in the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19