2026-01-21

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.

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for raising this issue on behalf of St. Brendan's College in Belmullet. I always appreciate it when a Deputy raises an issue about which he or she has lived experience, in this case, family members in the school in question. I acknowledge the genuine tribute the Deputy has paid to the team in St. Brendan's College, as well as the huge amount of work that is going on across the education system. The Deputy asks what we can do in this case. We are spending a huge amount of money on special education right across the country. We are trying to make sure that we have the best services available to children with additional needs in both primary and post-primary education. I assure the Deputy that since my appointment over a year ago I have worked extremely hard with the Department and the NCSE to make sure that we are providing the best possible resources across the education system. In all of the decisions that have been taken on additional accommodation or new builds, special education is built in. It is standard practice at this stage to ensure that any investment being made by the Department of education, the State and the taxpayer includes special education provision right across the country so that we bring special education as close as possible to those who need it. The Deputy put a simple question to me with regard to the nurture room. In many schools that I have visited I have seen imaginative solutions put in place to provide nurture rooms. I absolutely accept that nurture rooms are hugely important for ensuring that children with additional needs have the best possible educational experience. There are some funding mechanisms available to provide additional classrooms in the context of reconfiguring existing spaces. The previous Minister for education, Deputy McEntee, and I had numerous conversations in relation to putting a fund in place and those conversations have continued with the current Minister, Deputy Naughton. Many schools come to us to say that they or their parents' associations have raised funding. It is something we have looked at very clearly. The Deputy outlined the journey St. Brendan's College has taken in relation to the additional accommodation on the new build and the extension. The Deputy is right: there are an awful lot of students who were in the school when all these plans were put in place and have long since gone into adulthood and are working well outside the system. I will do two things on foot of this Topical Issue. First, I will go back to the Department to see if there is any mechanism for the immediate request. Second, I am very committed to the need to put a very simple funding stream in place for nurture rooms or quiet spaces. In mainstream education where they may not have a special class or special unit, they have children with additional needs. If there is a quiet space there, it helps the educational environment. We have looked at it. A lot of schools have raised funds for sensory gardens and quiet spaces which are all hugely important pieces of the education system and the best possible experience. I will first go back to see if there is any way we can help with the immediate request. We will try to find a route for schools in the future for a funding stream for nurture rooms or quiet spaces which would benefit the education system hugely.

I appreciate that. I know the Minister of State is genuine when he says he will do that with St. Brendan's College because doing so would send a clear message that while we plan for the future, we do not abandon the students in the present. I look forward to some movement on that issue. This is a very small investment in terms of the interim measure which would have a profound impact on the students who need that space. This is about fairness, urgency and care and about ensuring children who need support are not left behind while waiting for buildings that may still be years away. After nine years with the Department, one can imagine, even from a public expenditure point of view, how much the Exchequer would have saved if that was done when it was planned and approved, never mind all the benefits for the children who would have benefited in the meantime from having the additional space and the additional rooms which are desperately needed. We are fortunate that there is demand for that school and the numbers are increasing. We see in many rural schools that the numbers are decreasing. It speaks to the excellence of the teachers and management in that school. I have to praise the other two secondary schools in Erris as well which do excellent work. One of the key advantages of living in that area is the education provided. I ask the Minister of State to go back to the Department to say that nine years is too long and that it needs to get moving on this project, get the main project done and in the meantime provide a small bit of money that will make a huge and profound difference to the work the teachers and students are doing there. On behalf of the students, the teachers and the principal, I thank the Minister of State for his response.

It was remiss of me not to mention at the outset that the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Pa Daly, raised an issue in relation to the HSE and the Department of education. I will follow up on that from our side as well about getting the Donal Walsh video circulated. On St. Brendan's College, I will go back to the planning and building unit and we will see where that is at. I take the point about funding. The cost of building is going to increase, has increased dramatically over the past while and will continue to increase. The sooner we get these projects up and running, the better. I assure Deputy Conway-Walsh that in all these projects we are very much aware of making special education central in all applications to make sure we provide for it. Into the future we will look at how we can accommodate it in mainstream education by means of nurture rooms, quiet spaces or sensory gardens because a lot of school communities are fundraising for that. Without guarantees, we will see if there is any way of funding it. We will do what we can. If we can, we will but if we cannot, we will let the Deputy know. We will follow up on the issues the Deputy has raised.