School Accommodation Dail Éireann — 2026-07-07 ============================================================ Shane Moynihan (FF), Dublin Mid-West Is mór agam é labhairt anseo oíche anocht ar chás Scoil Chrónáin. Is Gaelscoil í i Rathcoole i mo Dháilcheantar. Tá sí 50 bliain ar an bhfód agus tá sí ag tabhairt aghaidh ar a céad 50 bliain eile. This evening, I am speaking on behalf of the school community of Scoil Chrónáin in Rathcoole who have asked their Oireachtas representatives to bring the school’s case to the floor of the Dáil on a number of points. Scoil Chrónáin is at the heart of Rathcoole village. It has a proud tradition of providing Gaelscolaíocht to communities in Rathcoole, Saggart and farther afield. I attended Coláiste Chilliain where there were many alumni from Scoil Chrónáin. It has a proud and noble tradition of education and a vibrant and active school community. Part of the school’s story is its wait for a new school building. There was great celebration agus ceiliúradh in the past few months when Scoil Chrónáin was identified as one of the priority school building projects under the national development plan’s educational sectoral plan. The project was to deliver a 16-classroom school, including two special education classrooms on the permanent Rathcoole site. The school is already relying on prefab accommodation, so the need for progress on this project was particularly urgent and acute. The project ended a tender process in February 2025 and submissions were received in May, but the preferred tenderer has withdrawn after due diligence. The challenge that is now being faced is that the school expected to see ground being broken at this stage. Its planning permission expires in November of this year. I am conscious that the Department is aware of all of this information. The school is at a crossroads in that it does not know where its permanent school building is at. There is a lack of clarity and certainty in that regard. Given that the school is 50 years in existence, has such a proud tradition of schooling and provides a first-class education to the students in its building, it is difficult to justify to that school community that it is still relying on prefab accommodation, especially when it expected a new building to be delivered. It is not the only school in Dublin Mid-West that faces this situation, but it is the one I am speaking about today. The school also faces an additional challenge in that its enrolment means it lost its 16th teacher for this coming school year. The average class size is approximately 25-26 students. This will result in the creation of three multi-grade classes of approximately 34 students between fifth and sixth classes. This loss of a teacher, along with education being provided in a building that should have been replaced and about which there was great hope it would have been replaced, will inevitably place additional pressures on teachers and students. I raise this case in particular because Gaelscolaíocht is very important and close to my heart. We know that scoileanna in the Gaeltacht receive additional teacher provision because of their status as scoileanna Gaeltachta. That privilege is not extended or afforded to scoileanna in non-Gaeltacht areas, despite the fact that they are Gaelscoileanna. The programme for Government that we support commits clearly to reducing the pupil-teacher ratio to 19:1 and to providing additional support for schools that have particularly large classes. My asks are threefold. First, I seek an update on where the new permanent building for Scoil Chrónáin that was promised in the NDP sectoral plan is. Second, what progress can we make to reducing the overall pupil-teacher ratio? Third, will consideration be given for scoileanna in non-Gaeltacht areas to have additional provision for a higher pupil-teacher ratio, where practical? Scoil Chrónáin has 50 proud years of education behind it. I hope it will embrace the next 50 years with the vibrancy, culture and the grá don Ghaeilge it has demonstrated in its five decades in Rathcoole. I hope we will be able to bring it some good news about the school building soon. --- 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/2026-07-07/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-07