Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that school building is taking place. I suppose it is a long time since the Department was not building schools in some part of the country. My children's school is the subject of major capital works and we are very pleased about that. However, building has stalled in the case of some schools for reasons that are unfathomable in many cases and this is wrong. What happens is that the Minister publishes a list, local announcements are made by Government politicians, everyone is delighted and then there is radio silence and nobody knows what is going on. That is partly the Department's fault. It might be the school's fault in some cases because some people might know what is going on or there is a problem that is not the Department's fault, but nobody knows that publicly enough. Whitecross National School in Julianstown in County Meath has been sitting on a list for the best part of ten years. As recently as two or three years ago, it was promised that it would be built. I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, responded to a Commencement Matter on the issue in the Seanad recently.

It is just not fair. The parents simply do not know what is happening. While it is not entirely the Department's fault, St. Peter's Church of Ireland school in Dunboyne has just been left hanging there for some time. We want to see real action. I acknowledge there has been some progress. In general the Minister will need to fight to frontload some of this spending in the next year or so. The need is there now and the Minister needs to look for alternative funding sources.

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