Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There could be. I will be happy to come back and discuss this in some detail. The Deputy has heard me say many times that my nightmare is a child looking into an empty field rather than a schoolyard, largely because somebody does not want to go through the hassle of changing the area development plan or because a planning officer or a traffic control person feels there will be problems.

I support the idea that an educational campus makes sense from the point of view of the provision of education services. Sporting facilities, halls and so on can be shared. The numbers at primary and secondary school level can be increased. A traffic officer, who is an engineer and works on the technical side, as in Cork city, may say the area does not like a traffic arrangement or will refuse an application on traffic grounds because between 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. there will be a traffic jam in a particular area.

Notwithstanding the fact that we have memorandums of understanding negotiated at senior national level between county councils and county managers and their counterparts in the Department, that has not been implemented. There are also third party appeals, such as in Athenry.