I want to raise with the Taoiseach the urgent need for approval for Newtown School in Waterford to proceed with tender and construction for a new school building. The school has served Waterford for over two centuries. It entered the free education scheme in 2014 when it agreed to expand to accommodate 600 students funded by the Department. The old building, Wyse house, on the site is in urgent need of emergency works and a new development is needed to accommodate the growing student numbers.

To be fair, the school contacted all TDs asking us to raise this issue. It asks that the Government prioritises the development project, which includes moving this to tender and construction, but it also asks for emergency funding to deal with the state of the building at the moment where it needs to be improved. I know it is something that the Taoiseach can raise with the Minister for education.

I think I was at the site some time back, albeit not when the school was operational. It was a private school for many years and came over to the public system in 2012. It is an historic listed building. It is my understanding that modular provision has been made. I am getting a lot of prompts from behind me from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who is very familiar with the issue as well. It is an historic building and in fairness to the community there, it provides a significant contribution to education. The modular buildings will hopefully deal with the interim requirements, but I take the Deputy's overall point in terms of a new school building.