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

That is why, in the past three or four years, we have managed to deal with the majority of demand for primary school places. The situation was at crisis point. Under the last five-year plan, which will finish next year, and new plans to come out in the months ahead, the urgency of providing places in primary education has been more or less matched and dealt with, and rightly so. We are moving on now to ensure we have the same solutions for secondary places. This Administration has dealt with the matter. It has dealt with local authorities and put in place a new structure that should have been in place years ago. I fully agree with Deputy Coppinger on that point.

There had been complete and utter failure in county planning. We have corrected that as best we can and as quickly as we can in our short few years in government, and we hope to continue with this reform in our next phase in government. I do not believe everyone shares Deputy Coppinger's view that this Administration will not be back to continue the good work in education.

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