Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's reply. That this is the largest single school building project ever undertaken by the Department shows that the population of east Cork is absolutely ballooning and is also set to balloon in the next ten years. I wanted to raise the matter because we are at maximum capacity in other areas. In Midleton, St. Mary's High School has major capacity issues. There is a necessity for all of this. As I said at the outset, this is about getting clarity. I welcome the urgency on this. Despite the hiccups at the start, things are moving forward.

I would like to liaise with the Minister. We do not need to do it through Topical issues and parliamentary questions. I would like to liaise with her to keep the people of Carrigtohill and east Cork updated on it. I have seen progress. The foundations and the services are in. However, we are now at the end of January and people are getting concerned that it might be another year. It is a massive undertaking with a capacity of nearly 2,500 pupils. Demand is there and it will grow.

I would appreciate even a bimonthly statement from the Department or perhaps the Minister and I could work here in the House to outline progress, including meetings with the developers or the design team and beyond that. It is all about education - pardon the pun - and keeping the community informed of the progress. At least we are not seeing a regression. We have seen the progress of the site. We have seen the roads go in. The lamp posts have gone up. If we can be the liaison officers for the people that we represent in east Cork, I would greatly appreciate that. I again thank the Minister for her reply.

See this speech in context