Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

That can be a very good use as well.

We all have concentrated on our own areas, and possibly because it is easier to describe things. Kildare - I represent part of it - doubled in population between the 1970s and the 1990s and it doubled in population again between the 1990s and now. According to the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, the largest class sizes in the country are in Kildare. It is a sizeable population and had the biggest number of commencement notices of any county last year. The trend is set to continue. As a consequence, education will be a big feature.

I will pick a few things out, where some things are done well and the schools are delivered. There is a lot of stuff that there are queries on. I would like to ask Mr. Loftus about Magee Barracks, for example, in Kildare town, which was sold by the Department of Defence for €8 million. The land was then rezoned for housing. Then the Department of Education purchased a site at an inflated price for the construction of a school. Putting it benignly, that seems to be the wrong, and more expensive, way to do things. Given the profile of a county that is growing in population, why was it not foreseen that there would be a need for a school and this was a potential site?