Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Malcolm Byrne (FF), Wicklow-Wexford

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that he is taking this on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, who has indeed visited Gorey Hill School. There is an acknowledgment in here that the school is already at capacity and that there is greater demand.
The concern I have in regard to the answer that has been provided is whether regard has been had to the potential impact the proposed modular construction will have on the play area, car parking and ancillary services that exist on the site already, and if there has been a sufficient level of consultation around this. Everyone wants to see the school grow, but this should not be at the expense of either the Gaelscoil or the naíonra. I would encourage that there should be consultation with the parents who are concerned about that but, as I said, they are incredibly supportive of the school in the long run.
This is in an extremely busy area of the school. We have a second level school, Creagh College, with 1,000 pupils in the area, as well as not just the Gaelscoil but two other primary schools, all within a couple of hundred metres of this site. It is already an extremely busy educational campus. There are obviously concerns that if we are looking at expanding educational facilities on the same site, some of that will have a knock-on impact. I certainly support and want to see the development of the school. As an interim solution, the modular solution is what may be necessary and the creation of the school was done at breakneck speed, for which I really praised the Department. It was what it needed to do.
I am concerned, given the projected growth in population plus the demand within the area, that in the long term this modular extension is potentially seen as the long-term solution. We in north Wexford have been told many times that when we get a new school, that is the last school the area will get and yet, the population continues to grow and we eventually get an additional school. The Department needs to go back to the drawing board and have a long-term plan to ensure that we have a greenfield site for the building of a new special school in the area.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16