Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am shaking in my boots at the prospect of Kildare coming at us. The Deputy should start threatening the Dubs first after last week. Likewise, the population of Meath is growing as well, so there might be increased competition between Kildare and Meath in the years ahead, but neither of us have much to boast about at the moment, so we will have to work on that.

On the issues raised by the Deputy, he is right. The idea is that the Department is trying to get everyone talking and I believe the patrons are doing that at the moment. I hope that will give the result the Deputy requires, and if it does not, we will have to examine other ways of doing that. The Deputy suggested a meeting. I will convey that message to my colleague and we will see what can be done in that respect.

The issue is the future demographics, to which the Deputy referred. In fairness, the forward planning unit of the Department of Education and Skills has been very successful in recent years in planning ahead and making sure that areas under serious pressure in terms of demographics are getting their schools built in time and the school places available in time, which did not happen in the past. However, under this Government that has changed and there is now proper forward planning. We have the school five-year plan that will end next year and we have another five-year plan due to come out following that, which will specifically target resources in areas suffering from demographic changes where the populations are either moving to areas or they are developing naturally. Either way, the schools are needed and that demand is being met at great cost to the Department of Education and Skills, but the key point is that the planning unit is on top of the game, which was not always the case. They were not always allowed to locate the schools in the right place but now the right decisions are being made.

I hope Kilcock has been assessed properly. I would say it has but this issue needs to be sorted out for this term and this enrolment year and we have to work on that. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

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