Yes.

Sentiment score: 0.40

I want to be very clear; we need a special school. We have all been contacted by parents who are having to fight for their children to get appropriate places, and I want to make it very clear that we are all on the same page. The compromise solution put forward by Belmayne Educate Together, which will see a special school housed temporarily in its permanent building, makes sense. Nobody wants to see a special school going in to prefabs. This school can house this special school temporarily in a permanent building while it awaits its new build. We need an explanation as to why this compromise, which is very fair, has been rejected by the Department.

Sentiment score: 0.37

I echo what my constituency colleagues said. Will the Minister of State visit the school in order to see the difference between the prefabs to which he refers and what a permanent school building would offer? We need a timeline for the delivery of permanent accommodation. This is not the Minister of State’s brief; it is that of the Minister for Education. We need a timeline for when a permanent school building for this special school will be delivered. The Minister of State needs to be fair to the parents and people in the area. You only need to look up the road to Gaelchólaiste Reachrann, where children have been in prefabs for 24 years on the grounds of another school. Nobody wants to see that repeated.

Sentiment score: 0.10