Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

In principal, the primary issue is to provide a school place for every child and in providing additional schools, to have a process in place to decide on the patronage of those new schools. We cannot expand funding for places, where there enough places available already, for the purposes of choice. We did that to a certain extent up until 2007 or 2008. Given the pressures on the budget now, however, allowing a school to go from two streams down to one stream and building a new school next door is not an efficient use of Government money. In simple terms, it is inefficient to fund for three streams but only have two in use. However, it is never as simple as that and that is why we want to allow schools to reconfigure in the primary space. If there is a demand for more Irish-medium or multi-denominational spaces, the best option is for a school to switch. That way, we do not have to put in the investment again. That is why we have this exercise with the ETBs. In the particular case of north Kildare regarding the gaelcholáiste and an Aonad in the ETB school, that is under active consideration at the moment. The case is very well made and we have committed to actively examining it. I do not see that particular case as one involving huge costs. Hopefully we will be able to sort that one out, given that the demand is shown and there is an expanding number of students in the area. It is where there is a declining or static number in an area that we have a difficulty. We just cannot duplicate provision when provision is so limited.