Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I certainly acknowledge that. I can see that in my own community. I can see the additional classes there. I can see the efforts that schools and parents have gone to in collaboration with the NCSE to be creative. One school in Booterstown proactively identified a parish hall next to it, and the school, the parents and the Department have worked to secure that and find the additional space. When I go down the road, however, there is a school of 600 children which needs a lot of work. That school needs a lot of work anyway but the NCSE did not come to it with the same creativity and ambition to find the extra space, which I can see adjacent to the school. My point is that Mr. Kearney is correct that the NCSE is to be congratulated on that additional work, particularly over the past two years. I can see a pipeline over the next two years but more needs to be done to try to be creative and secure those premises. So many parents, and also schools, are trying to drive this.