Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will just flag a few issues because I am out of time. There has been a theme to my questions, namely, that we are a little lacking in clearly specified objectives. There are trajectories, additional allocations and a general recognition that we might need to move in a particular direction, but there are not clearly specified objectives and there is more work to be done there. I have not studied the performance service report in detail but for some Departments - I will take the arts sector as an example - it is woefully weak regarding what the objectives of the expenditure are and what the outcomes will be.

Another issue that has recently become very apparent to me concerns the provision of school buildings. In my area alone, five or six potential schools have been recognised for patronage. There has been an acknowledgement that the schools have to be set up but none of them has any clue where its permanent location will be, even though many of them have been around for years. There seem to be no specifics. We have general allocations and aspirations, but even if we recognise a particular school, whether a Gaelscoil or an Educate Together, we do not say there is going to be a location and plan, with the investment in place, to ensure there will be a school when the patronage has been set up or shortly thereafter.