Mr. Hubert Loftus:

We have to work within that but if we find there is a particular pressure point or year with certain issues, we engage with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in that regard. I hope that from the perspective of the committee and for the schools that listened, we have communicated some sense of the detailed work we do on forward and strategic planning and of the wide variety of delivery mechanisms we use to get school building projects done. It is to be hoped that when the members visit Tullamore, they will get an even better sense of that work. School building projects are large-scale projects. If they were simple, straightforward and easy, they would be done quicker. There is a process to work through and it involves significant investment by the taxpayer. We are working to ensure that is done as quickly as possible. I hope people are reassured about the school building programme by the setting out of the status of their projects and by the fact that we are adopting a more strategic approach to the 42 schools we announced last week to give us a better lead-in period. We are coming from a point of historical underinvestment in education and other public infrastructure. Things like the national development plan make a significant contribution to playing catch-up to address that.