Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

A ten-year timeframe at this stage is too little too late. There has been an appalling lack of planning in the past and we must learn from previous disastrous decisions to ensure that cannot happen again. Does the Minister agree that the present emergencies must be dealt with now?

Is the Minister aware of the situation in places such as Johnstown outside Navan, Ballivor, Navan and Ratoath, which is a prime example of the problem? What can the Minister say to a school with 940 pupils? She will probably be there to open a €4 million extension later in the year but the school will remain one classroom short at current growth rates. What can be done in such situations? There is a school in Gorey, County Wexford which caters for twice the number of pupils for which it was built, as Deputy Kehoe can confirm.

We must ensure we can deal with these emergencies. A ten-year time frame is a nice idea in places where population growth is about to start but in places such as those I have named already experiencing serious problems, something more urgent must be done. Other places, such as Enfield, Lismullen and Coole are in a disastrous position and the parents are frustrated at the lack of action. They cannot wait ten years, which is the cycle of primary school education, so where can they go? In many of these areas the answer is simply, nowhere.

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