Schools Building Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-25
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Ciarán Ahern (LAB), Dublin South-West

The issue of a school not having a sports hall is one very close to my heart because I went to the boys' school next door to Sancta Maria College, Coláiste Éanna, as did Deputy Lahart. For my entire time there, we had no sports hall. It means the school cannot offer PE, which is so important for children's mental and physical health. Even in the time since a sports hall was completed in Coláiste Éanna, we can see that a basketball club has developed in the area. It is a case of if you build it, they will come. It is such an important asset, not just for the school but for the area too. As the other Deputies have said, this is something that has been completely out of the school’s control. The building project started back in 2018. In 2020, during Covid, the developer, the builder, went bust. In the six years since then, nothing has happened. We now have a derelict site right beside a school. As Deputy Lahart said, we have an incomplete school with incomplete education, but we also have a fairly serious health and safety risk to the school community and the community at large. A small fire was started in that area. There are potential insurance issues for the school because of that. We are just looking for the school to get this building completed, as was promised 25 years ago, as Deputy Crowe said.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-25