Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not mention the name of the school in Cork where funding was in place for many years under the previous Government. This Government has stated the funding is still in place. It is a primary school. Pupils are being taught in a GAA hall and prefabs. The local authority has passed the planning application twice and has been taken to An Bord Pleanála twice. It is now probably subject to court proceedings. There seems to be a continual delay which is not down to funding. I recognise that it is a problem and steps are being taken to rectify the situation.

Some €19 million was rolled over from the capital budget last year. One obvious question people will ask is why we cannot take that money and allocate it to another area to offset some of the cuts in other areas of education. It is very hard to explain why we cannot do that. Is there a communication problem with the Department? Today would have been the first indication I heard that there are issues around new builds, in particular a greenfield site to which the Minister referred and the additional costs if a school will be the first building. Perhaps those matters need to be communicated better by the Department.