James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Cusack. I apologise to Mr. Loftus, but I have limited time.

Ms Cusack painted an excellent picture there. I have to agree with her in respect of forward planning. She referred to rail. A sum of €1.4 billion will be spent in east Cork and north Cork on tripling the rail capacity. As regards roads infrastructure, there is just shy of €1 billion in projects that are planned or under way in the east Cork area alone, all of which is to accommodate additional housing for a rapidly growing population. The figure the Department of Education is spending on new secondary school builds, however, currently stands at zero. That is massively concerning. One needs to look beyond Midleton because, from an educational perspective, the schools there are at breaking point. They cannot take any more capacity. Is the Department going to consider further projects in Carrigtwohill, where the population is expected to multiply, or, further east, towards Youghal, will it look at villages such as Castlemartyr, Ladysbridge or Cloyne where secondary schools could be built to provide for those areas in the future? The witnesses have spoken about how the Department is monitoring these issues, but I still have a concern.

I am hearing about monitoring from the Department. What I am not hearing is that we are actively looking into the need for a new post-primary school in the east Cork area to accommodate the fact that in ten or 15 years' time, the population of that area may well have increased by around 10,000. That is not what I am hearing and it is hugely worrying. I do not mean to be so sharp and critical. I have tried, on many occasions, to make this point since I was elected to the Dáil. I am sure people are sick of listening to me but I must say that it is concerning that this is rolling on and on. We cannot keep extending the existing secondary schools. Every secondary school in my constituency has either gone through a process of having to relocate to a new greenfield site or works are being completed to add extensions to it. Once those are complete, we will be at choking point. The point I want to get across is that we are going to have to build a new school in east Cork. Indeed, there is potentially the need for more than one additional new secondary school. It is frightening but that is just the reality of it. I do not think the Department sees it that way. Do the witnesses have anything to say in response?