Mr. Hubert Loftus:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. Covering the particular issues raised, the site in Glanmire is a 7.6 acre site and we have agreement in principle with the local authority to acquire it. As far as I understand the current position on that, the legalities are being worked through and we are awaiting the contract documents from the council. That site helps to future-proof Cork in the context of special school provision. I am conscious that over the last year or two we have done a lot of work in the Cork area in special schools in adding and strengthening capacity. We opened a new school there last year as well.

In terms of the site acquisition process generally, without getting into the full detail of it, we are very much actively involved in engaging with the local authorities in relation to the county development plans.

Those are the county and local area development plans and the different stages within that process. We had a very good, positive and constructive relationship with local authorities in that regard and in working that through. We assess and determine what we see as the needs going forward and then make judgments on reserving sites as part of that process.

On occasion, there can be tension with developers who may feel they do not need their site reserved. We engage with the local authority on that to make sure the interests of school and education provision going forward are clear. In Cork, we had a site in the Cork docklands where it was envisaged that the reserved schools site would be reduced. We saw that as impacting on our development plans. While no site is perfect and we have to manage challenges, we had to put our foot down very clearly in objecting to the envisaged reduction. That objection ultimately transacted, worked through and ultimately led, through our engagement with the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and ministerial direction from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to making sure the school provision requirements of the site were appropriate and reflective.

The Deputy mentioned the six-year period. Under the planning and development reform legislation that has been working its way through the Oireachtas, the direction of travel is to move from six years to ten years; maybe with a review period after five years. We see that as very positive and helpful. We are engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on opportunities to strengthen our engagement generally and school provision requirements.

With regard to the projects permitted, I do not have details of every project, given we have 300 projects in construction and 1,000 projects in the pipeline. Projects are devolved for delivery and we engage closely with the schools on delivery and working through solutions. As part of our strengthening of our delivery mechanisms, we put project management supports in place within the education and training boards, ETBs, to help with delivery. We also put building officer supports in place with other delivery partners, all with the purpose of getting projects delivered as quickly as possible. We are especially conscious of projects in the area of special educational needs. We have used project management supports, more recently in our modular accommodation framework, as a mechanism for delivery. If a project that was in the frame for 2017 was happening today, it might have been done through a different tack, with regard to the particular forms that we have put in place over the past number of years.