I raise the issue of St. Joseph's Secondary School in Spanish Point, County Clare. A beautiful school, its enrolment has doubled across the last decade. With that growth have come certain difficulties for the school. At the moment, 216 female students in the school have to use four toilet cubicles. That is all the students have. The school has been approved for ten more toilet cubicles but the approval just sits on a shelf. The school keeps sending in the paperwork the Department requires but it is getting very little back. It has been approved for new science laboratories, preparatory areas, a music room, construction rooms and two general classrooms. It keeps sending in the information the Department requires but it seem to be on a hamster wheel going no place. For five years, the school has responded to every single thing asked of it. This is now at a critical stage. The school is now turning away students because it cannot cater for and those who are in the school do not have basic infrastructure like classrooms and even toilets. I ask the Taoiseach to intervene. I have raised this at the education committee and with the Minister but it does not seem to be going any place. It will need new impetus to get it moving.

I thank Deputy Crowe for his robust advocacy on behalf of St. Joseph's Secondary School and its extension application. I take on board what he said. There has been significant investment in school buildings but, clearly, there is a necessity for more. I will engage with the Minister for education on this issue to see if we can move forward and advance this extension for the benefit of the students who attend the school and, of course, the staff who work there, as well as the wider community. It is a valuable school in a beautiful part of the country. We will certainly do what we can. There are wider issues as well.