Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have to say I am deeply concerned about the capital programme and I assume the Minister is also. Quite frankly, it seems the Minister does not have enough money to meet the demand for school places and, in particular, to meet the commitments his predecessor, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, made in 2015. Very little progress has been made on this particular capital plan. The number of projects, as listed in the Estimates, which the Department has completed has dropped dramatically in recent years. In 2015 there were 936 small extensions and upgrading of facilities in primary schools and this dropped to 600 last year. In post-primary schools it dropped from 269 to 200. This is a dramatic drop in works carried out in primary schools in the two-year period and a large drop at post-primary level.

There is also not just a creeping back of prefabs but a dramatic expansion of them under the Minister's reign, at the time when it is recognised my former colleagues, Batt O'Keeffe and Mary Coughlan, made progress to try to replace prefabs with classrooms. Ruairí Quinn as Minister certainly spoke about it and some progress was made, but under the Minister's watch, the number of prefabs rented increased by 25.7% in one year, and it is an even larger increase since 2015. What is the Minister's answer to this? It is a disgraceful situation that it is happening.

I have to say I do not think the Department is at the races, with all due respect to everybody, on the increases in population. I see it in my constituency. I had reports today, for example, of Oldcastle, which is a rural town, where the secondary school is oversubscribed. I never heard of that before in a rural town where there is not much other choice. We know there is oversubscription in Dunshaughlin Community College also. We know there is massive oversubscription in Ashbourne, and the Department has been notified by school principals in that town of their assessment of the absolutely unprecedented oversubscription. I am speaking about my constituency because it is the one I know best, but I know Dunshaughlin has similar issues. Not enough work is being done with regard to the houses that are being built.

A quick drive around many of these areas, whether in Meath, Kildare or Dublin, would show that houses are being built. I am sure it is also starting to happen in Kilkenny and, perhaps, Sligo. In towns in my constituency, such as Ashbourne, it is almost impossible to get a primary school place for a child above junior infants level. One will not find a place for children in third or fourth class. I am hearing from principals that it will be very difficult for some people to find places for junior infants next September.

I do not believe the Department has enough planning done and, crucially, I do not believe enough budgeting has been done. This is shown by the substantial drop in the number of projects, the lack of progress on the schools building plan and the dramatic increase in the number of rented prefabs the Department is now using, shockingly, to deal with the issue. We believed we had seen the last of them.