Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. He has made his case very clearly and very well. As he said, I am a Deputy as well and I face requests from parents for school places for their child coming up to the next school year. As the Deputy knows from the census results, every county has a growing population, so there are demands all around the country for new schools and 300 school projects are happening at the moment. It is important and I can see this is a critical project in a very fast-growing town. The school is moving from 555 enrolled students to 1,000 with an amazing array of facilities in the new school. It must be difficult for a school to be split between three campuses and I understand that. It is a real sign of progress that a meeting is happening tomorrow between the ETB and the Department to decide whether to move ahead from stage 2a to 2b. As the Deputy said, it is at stage 2b that the planning application can be made and further progress can be made on this application. I met the Minister, Deputy Foley, last week because I launched the project to put free solar panels on every school in Ireland and I will say it to her when I see her again. I will let her know what the Deputy said about the project in Portlaoise and how critical it is for the parents and students in the town that project goes ahead as soon as possible.

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