Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

Looking at the budget we have, my priority is to do several things. First and foremost, it is to ensure we have the capacity for students starting school in September this year and beyond and that we are forward planning. We still have a growing school population. While we know it is levelling out, in primary school numbers, and particularly in certain areas in Dublin, these numbers are still increasing. It is the same in my county of Meath and in the surrounding areas like County Kildare. We will continue to have an increasing population in our post-primary schools and this fact must be front and centre when we are making building plans. The second priority after that is ensuring we are replacing old buildings and prefabs, especially those that are not fit for purpose and have been there for as long as the Deputy mentioned. As we are negotiating and working on what that budget looks like now, I cannot give the Deputy a timeline. I can say the priority is to ensure we have places for students, we have new buildings where we need them and we are replacing accommodation that is not fit for purpose. This is certainly a project that will be a part of that conversation. It did go in at the end of last year. Obviously we want projects to move as quickly as possible, but this one is in the early stages. As I said, though, the priorities are to ensure we are providing places while also ensuring that buildings that are not fit for purpose are also replaced.

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