When Coolmine Community School opened in 1974, it was one of Ireland's first community schools and a trail-blazer for education. It had an enviable mix of academic achievements, extracurricular activities and social activity. For many in Dublin West, it represented a modern community with a strong sense of identity and pride. Many of the parents of students attending today are former students who remember that pride. More than 50 years later, however, the building remains largely unchanged. While Blanchardstown has grown into one of Ireland's largest and most dynamic communities, the spaces where our students learn have been left behind. The young people of today deserve facilities that are as ambitious as they are, and that match the quality of education they are getting at Coolmine. Very recently the school's patron and the board of management submitted an application for a new school building under the major capital works programme. I have looked at the figures. Between 2015 and 2023, over seven years, €750,000 was put into emergency works. More has gone in since I was elected. Can the Tánaiste encourage the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to visit the school, which I am doing, and give its development the priority it really deserves?

I thank Deputy Currie for raising this project. She has worked with Coolmine Community School and the board of management to get an application for a new building into the Department, which was submitted a couple of weeks ago. I can confirm that the Department received the application from Coolmine Community School on 5 May for that large-scale capital funding to provide a new school building. The Department recently already agreed a brief for the provision of two special education classrooms as well, which will be delivered as quickly as possible through modern methods of construction. The application that is submitted now will go through its detailed appraisal and there will be good engagement with the school. On foot of the Deputy raising this today, I will ask the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to visit the school with her in the near future.