Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the lifetime of this Government, over €4.8 billion has been expended on school buildings and extended accommodation. That includes 800 projects that have been completed by the Department and 300 projects at various stages of development that are currently on site. The Deputy will be aware that earlier this year, I made an announcement of €800 million in additional funding that would provide for 90 or more projects to move to construction stage so there has been no shortage.

The Deputy specifically referred to special education. Some 3,000 special classes are now in place for special education, two thirds of which have been delivered under this Government. Equally, 11 new special schools have been delivered under this Government. There has been no shortage of money, funding or resources being made available for capital builds, irrespective of what the Deputy says.

On Fermoy, I want to be very clear that there was an arrangement with the patron that an agreed level of numbers would be kept in place by Educate Together until alternative sites were made available.

A technical assessment will now take place by the Department. However, an agreement was made in the first instance between the patron body, Educate Together, and the Department regarding the availability of accommodation at any given time. That agreement was made by both parties on behalf of the school. The patron made that agreement.

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