Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, the Minister of State and the officials. This is a very useful and welcome debate. I cannot help but being struck by the improvements that have taken place and the increased allocation to education. We have come a long way in the past four years.

I want to make a general point on the capital programme but I do not want to get too parochial because each of us will have issues in our constituencies. As a Deputy, I have often gone through the experience over the past four years that when it comes to the allocation of capital funding for school development programmes, the age issue is forgotten. I have tabled parliamentary questions about two schools in my constituency, St. Thomas's and St. Anne's. There has been a considerable level of development in my constituency and other Deputies will have experienced it as well in theirs. Sometimes, however, when there is an application for an extension that was submitted more than 14 years ago, people cannot help but feel that they have been overlooked and completely forgotten, especially when newer schools that have come on stream in the interim have applied for extensions and have been given priority. I wish to make that general point on the criteria for examining schools that require extensions or development in terms of the age profile of the applications. I thank the Chair.