Mr. Murty Hanly:

There are two fine Gaelscoileanna in Mullingar. They are fine schools. In general, on the decisions that are made around the establishment of post-primary schools and Gaelcholáistí, and the Minister referred to it earlier, we have to meet a certain demand figure of 400 pupils before we configure the opening of a Gaelcholáiste. As part of our work in analysing the demand for schools, for post-primary schools we look at the enrolment in primary school level, we look at inward migration and potential future developments in the area and we make an assessment into the future as to when a school may be established. As I said, the first trigger is 400 pupils for post-primary. When we look at Mullingar, similar to many other regional towns, there is a continuing demand for school places. In primary level one can see the demand is probably dropping off on a national level but in the urban areas of the likes of Mullingar and other regional towns, the demand is still strong at primary and that is pushing through to post-primary. However, the threshold for that 400 is just not there at the minute. We keep it under review and the option of an aonad is also still available to any town or any post-primary school.