Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to give a sense that somehow the pause button has been pressed on development in Dún Dealgan and other schools. There are a number of schools across the country who are in similar circumstances. The process whereby they reach the point where they are ready to go to construction will continue. The school has not been set aside because of the five year programme and the demands being placed on the resources on the Department in completing the five-year programme.

These other schools which are outside the programme at present will be progressed to the point at which they are ready to go to construction on the basis that we may be able to look at another iteration of the programme in the years to come or that other funds may arise in circumstances of which we are not aware to allow us to begin that development.

Let me assure the Senator that the school will be progressed along that parallel process to bring it to the point at which it is ready to go for construction. However, as I said in my reply, at this point the pressure on the building unit of the Department is to deliver on the five year programme to meet the major demographic challenge of 75,000 new school entrants in the next four to five years. That is what the unit must respond to at this time and I hope it will get to schools such as Dun Dealgan and others that are in similar situation as soon as possible.