Mr. Hubert Loftus:

I note the Deputy's point. As head of the planning and building unit, my span cuts across 4,000 schools. There are priorities to be managed across all of that. The other general point the Deputy raised was about construction and inflation. We reflect and manage that because ultimately projects must be delivered where there is a need. There are constitutional and legal obligations regarding delivery of education provision. We update our basic building cost to reflect that. Over the past year or so, we updated our building cost by 21%, which reflects that. That creates its own budgetary pressures and requires management thereof. The Government has recognised the importance of supporting education. Along with national development plan funding, in 2022, for example, a supplementary budget of €300 million was provided, which was positive and helpful and recognised strong delivery by the planning and building unit over the course of 2022.