Ms ?ine Cusack:

I thank the Deputy. It is an area with which we are very familiar. We have a significant amount of positive and productive engagement with the school authorities and the patrons in east Cork annually. We are aware of the enrolment pressures there. We are conscious of both the short-term dynamics and the medium to longer term dynamics, as the Deputy mentioned. In the short term, as we stated in reply to Deputy O'Sullivan, duplication of applications is a big driver of waiting lists and a draw from external areas. That generally works through, however. We work closely with the school patrons and are in discussions with the principals and patrons in east Cork to make sure there are sufficient places for 2023 and 2024. We have recently agreed with St. Colman's College that it will take extra pupils, for example, and Midleton CBS took an extra couple of classes last year as well. We work closely to make sure the capacity is there in the short term.

We have a string of projects either recently delivered or in train that is delivering significant additional capacity. As I mentioned in reply to Deputy O'Sullivan, we are conscious that those projects should, in theory and relative to our projections, give us ample provision at post-primary level but that is a contingency that we hope will allow to absorb the potential increase in housing, depending on the timing of that delivery. As mentioned earlier in the context of the timing of the lead-in and the child yield, it is important to consider when that housing will convert to primary school children and post-primary school children. We have that contingency there for the level of housing that is anticipated. We know that Water Rock, for example, is targeted for significant residential growth. I refer to the train station to be located there and the opportunities for green travel that may bring. At the moment, we are keeping it under active review. We believe the projects we already have in train will meet that medium-term need but we are monitoring the housing and population targets and the county development plan. Through our GIS, we are monitoring applications for residential development, commencement notices, construction commencements and construction completions to closely monitor the development, the impact in terms of child yield and the ultimate impact on school places in order to ensure we have that provision in the area.