Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply, which is much appreciated. It clearly indicates that the Minister of State, the senior Minister and the Department has a knowledge of what the situation is. It is also important to have an up-to-date knowledge and such knowledge will show the most results at this particular time. We have all, as public representatives, tried to ensure that the school management boards relay to the Department regularly to update it, and that all of the factors that need to be brought into account to cater for an increasing population are availed of in good time.

We cannot plan for such things as the intervention of Covid, but there are modern methods that can now be used to build emergency accommodation on to a school as an alternative to the old-fashioned types of prefabs we had in the past, and we had a lot of them in Kildare North, though I am glad to say they are diminishing in number. The situation prevails in every town in the north of the county. The Minister of State mentioned most of them there, but, for instance, Ardclough has a new school and it is already under pressure and will need extra accommodation. There are a number of other schools. I do not want to go into all of them, but there are a number of them. It is a very populous county at present and it is important the children now and in the future have a good quality of accommodation so parents can be assured their children are in warm and safe surroundings and that we are making adequate preparation to ensure nobody is left out. I welcome the Minister of State's assurance that next year's requirement in September will be met.

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