School Accommodation Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Rose Conway-Walsh (SF), Mayo I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue on behalf of the staff, pupils and the community of St. Brendan's College in Belmullet. I am asking today for urgent interim funding for a nurture room at the school for students with additional and special needs. This funding would allow the school to act now and provide a much-needed facility for the school community rather than having to wait indefinitely for long-promised extension works. I will outline the recent history of the funding allocated to St. Brendan's College for extension works. These works were approved as far back as 2009 under the additional accommodation scheme and include seven classrooms and two specialist educational units. The project is now at stage 2a and has been sitting with the Department for several months. In reality this approval is eight years old and the school is still waiting for construction to begin. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is a practical person and I know he will agree that this is absolutely far too long. Pupils who were not even at the school when approval was granted have come out the other end and have not benefited from what was promised then. In the meantime, staff and students continue to work in prefabricated buildings installed in 1991 and 1992. That is over 30 years ago. These prefabs are well beyond their intended lifespan and are no longer fit for purpose. They suffer from water ingress, inadequate heating, ongoing structural deterioration and mould. Despite this, the school was forced to spend €15,000 of its own annual budget this year alone just to keep these units usable for students throughout the winter. This is not a sustainable or acceptable position for any school but particularly for a school that is serving a community with significant disadvantage. St. Brendan's College is a DEIS school in a Gaeltacht area. Over 70% of students come from the primary schools in Erris, a geographically isolated area the size of County Louth. The demand for educational provision and sensory support has grown significantly but the physical infrastructure of the school has not kept pace. The principal, teachers and board of management in St. Brendan's College cannot be praised enough. I know that from my own experience because my own two boys went to that school and received a wonderful education there. The Department and the ETB have advised the school to wait for the long-promised extension but the reality is that students cannot wait. Right now there are several students in the school who urgently need access to a quiet space or a nurture room to help them to manage their emotions, anxiety and sensory overload. Without such a space, their ability to engage in learning, remain in school and reach their potential is compromised. In response, school management has taken a proactive approach. Rather than waiting indefinitely, it has identified a small portable building that could be placed on the site and converted into a sensory room. This is a modest, practical and cost-effective solution. The school community has already raised almost €8,000, demonstrating strong local commitment and support. However, the community requires a total of €15,000 to make this project viable. My question is simple but urgent. Are there any funding streams, grants or discretionary supports available that would allow St. Brendan's College to meet the immediate needs of its most vulnerable students while the larger extension project for the school remains delayed? This request is not about replacing the long-awaited extension but about ensuring that children who need support today are not left without it because of processes that move too slowly. --- 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/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21