Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The provision of schools in developing areas is a matter of concern for the Department. That is why we have carried out studies on developing areas. Long-term and short-term plans have prioritised schools in developing areas to try to ensure that places are made available. If the Deputies look at the schools that are currently being built in those areas, they will see that families that move from one school to another during term are causing a big problem to both schools.

If any Member of the House wishes to tell me that we should have reduced class size before we dealt with children with special needs, before we targeted disadvantaged or before we aimed for integration of children——

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