Ms Bernie McNally:

I have to respectfully disagree with Deputy Brady that the whole system is a failure. As I said, there are nearly 1 million children and young people in the system at any one time. Every year, between 120,000 and 130,000 children come in at junior infants or first year and while I do not want to mislead parents, the vast majority of those get a school place because we are planning from years out. Deputy Brady identified himself that, in that particular area, even the local authority did not see the volume of expansion coming. It came quicker and was not foretold. We work really close-----