Mr. Hubert Loftus:

The Harold’s Cross site has six acres. It was bought in May 2018 for €23 million. The cost was determined by the Valuation Office, using relevant local comparators. Under Department of Public Expenditure and Reform procedures, that is the appropriate mechanism for determining the valuation. The Valuation Office produced the valuation that was binding on the Department of Education and on the IGB. That was the process.

It is a six-acre site and we are using it for two schools. One is a 1,000-pupil post-primary school, Harold’s Cross Educate Together Secondary School, and the other is a 16-classroom primary school, Harold’s Cross Educate Together National School. That is the long-term plan. This major project has gone through the design phase and into the detailed design stage. We have gone through the planning permission process. An Bord Pleanála appeals have impacted on our timeline. We are at the stage now, however, where this project is going out to tender later this year. Our intention is to be on-site in 2023. In the meantime, we have put some interim accommodation on that site to meet the need, conscious that our timelines have been impacted by the planning permission process.