Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a few more questions. Maybe Ms Mannion will be able to come in on some of the other stuff because the clock really works against us in this room. I have a few questions to get through and then I will hand back to the witnesses. I will finish some of my other questions.

It also struck me that the new builds are fantastic. They provide for all learning, curricular, staffing and student needs. However, where an extension or new room is added on to an existing building, while it is fabulous work and always appreciated in the community, as a teacher I think there are certain shortcomings in how a building extension is viewed. The building unit too often ignores the car parking needs outside the wall of the school and the need for a halla, a multipurpose room or a sports room. The new build gets it but the extension does not always get it. It is very difficult. I was a sixth class teacher where there were big strapping lads, tall girls and athletic 12-year-olds running amok during a PE class and I was trying to contain them, a class of 35 kids, in a room of similar size to this committee room. Our hall in Parteen National School was somewhat similar to this size and we would be trying to play a game of basketball by keeping half of them sitting on a bench and the other half on their feet. It was really difficult. I am aware there is a long-term plan for addressing physical education facilities but this needs to be stitched in where possible. Where work is happening on site, car parking, school drop-off zones - a bane of every school - and physical education facilities need to be looked at. During the boom years of development in the 2000s, plots of land were zoned throughout the country and nobody had the foresight to speak to the school community. Huge tracts of land were zoned, houses sprung up and schools were playing catch-up by putting prefabs on school campuses. What level of planning, especially forward planning, in terms of physical education, parking bays and school drop-off areas does Mr. Loftus have to meet future needs?