Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

My knowledge of such matters is based on my experience of dealing with schools in my local area. I am sure the Senator has similar experience. As both of us represent constituencies in commuter land, we have to deal with many schools building projects. I understand that when a school is told that its project has a low band rating, it is bad news for the school. If a project is one of the upper bands, such as band 1, it is good news because the project has priority status.

While I do not have in-depth knowledge of the detail of the case mentioned by Senator Fitzgerald, it appears we are talking about a site that is owned by the VEC. A study has taken place. It appears from the sentence that reads "the Department of Education and Science is consulting the VEC on the possibility of using the site" that the Department considers the use of the site in question to represent the best way forward. However, an additional portion of VEC lands is also needed to meet the school's long-term needs. The study that was carried out is being reviewed in the Department. The outcome of that study will tell a lot.