Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for remaining in the House to deal with the matters raised on the Adjournment. He is familiar with the Tyrellstown area and the need for the Educate Together school to be put in place as soon as possible. I understand we have a new system for dealing with planning for the provision of this school. The Department of Education and Science and Fingal County Council are to prepare a plan together which must be lodged with the county council. I seek clarification on how this system will operate.

More importantly, I want a date for when the plans will be lodged. The Educate Together organisation has expressed concern at the delay in lodging the plans. It is important that we would proceed with matters as quickly as possible to ensure the school will be in place for September 2006. The children will be in temporary accommodation this September. We cannot afford to delay the planning process because if an objection were made it could delay matters even further. I seek reassurance from the Minister of State that the plans will be lodged as soon as possible and that perhaps a timeframe would be given for the commencement of construction.