Mr. Paul Hogan:

Senator Gallagher said the system needed to plan forward, as well as to look at current educational need. When local authorities zone land, it brings with it an expectation of development, which enables us to plan, but the national planning framework process has identified historical overzoning in some places. Things have changed since 2010 and they continue to change but there is a link between the zoning of land and the expectation of development, along with the arrival of a greater population, which will bring with it schools and other services.

The Chairman asked whether the census figures were robust. Our population has experienced growth on a long-term trajectory but it is very volatile and there tends to be higher growth in some periods as compared with others. Growth shocks bring issues at local level and this feeds back into the idea of a national framework, which would allow a national view of where to prioritise. It is often difficult to do this when zoning land but, as Deputy Thomas Byrne has mentioned, it has a knock-on effect at the end of the process, which is when a child is trying to get into a school. Certain places have grown more quickly than others and if too much land is zoned and if there is uncertainty as to where development will occur, it is very hard to plan for investment.