Mr. Brian Power:

We would not rule out any areas.

To conclude, we are looking at a four year horizon here. This is new because previously we generally announced two years in advance. The four year horizon facilitates greater and earlier planning for new sites and permanent buildings so we will have less temporary accommodation and fewer of the issues we have discussed here today. However, there is an absolute need for ongoing review here. This is because, first, we have a four year horizon overall which in school planning terms is quite long because things change, populations change and populations move and, second, we have now brought in housing data and we know that major new housing developments are being approved almost weekly. Some of the questions raised on some of the areas may mean that we have to revisit those and see how best to provide. We would have to revisit areas in between the major exercises because this situation, which did not happen over the past eight to ten year period, is happening very quickly as well. We have a commitment to continue looking at that.

The next step on this will be the patronage process. When we move into that process for the 2019 schools, that is, the schools to be established and to open in 2019, we will have to run the patronage process for the post-primary schools first and then for the primary schools. We expect to be doing that over the coming months. On that front, and to conclude on the process, there is a new online process for patronage and for parental preferences to be expressed. We were not entirely happy, and the new schools establishment group also expressed its unhappiness, with the shortcomings of the old system, which was in the hands of patrons only and, unfortunately, patrons had a very hard job as well trying to collect individual patron preferences from parents on the street. From our point of view we wish to put the system online and to give parents more information. We want to provide them with comparative information on the patron groups because the differences are not well understood at present. It will enable parents to make a more informed choice and it should be easier for parents to go online. Hopefully, we will make the system more efficient from the Department's point of view also because we will be able to make the system produce outcomes from it which can feed into our overall deliberations.

Before I leave the subject of the GIS and new schools, perhaps I should address Ashbourne and south Kildare.