Mr. Hubert Loftus:

If you look at the flow of schools that have been reconfigured, you can see that movement on this has been a slow burner. That is not necessarily because of the Department or even the church. It is more about looking at where the demand is among local school communities. The pilot programme is very much about determining the best process for engaging locally, working things through and seeing what works. We were recently dealing with Athlone, which is designated a regional growth town as part of the national development plan and Project Ireland 2040.

That will have its first multidenominational school, which is a positive. The Minister was in Nenagh last week for the first multidenominational provision in County Tipperary. There will be opportunities there.