John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. That is very reassuring, especially when she mentioned Mr. John Kearney, who I know the Minister of State has said will facilitate a visit to Dundalk in the future. One point I will make is that the extra staff are very welcome and will provide a real ability to cater for these children however there is an issue of actual physical capacity. By that I mean there are a number of secondary schools in Dundalk that have been secondary schools for 100 to 150 years. They are right in the middle of the town centre and it is very difficult, because of the physical nature of where they are, for them to expand. We need to do some work with the building unit in Tullamore to try to see what we can do for those types of schools in large provincial towns such as Dundalk that are physically boxed in and do not have the space to expand. I am glad to see there is forward planning but the point is we have 18 spaces in this whole part of north Louth and we have 144 children. I am really heartened to hear that the Minister of State is going to work with me over the next couple of years to ensure those 144 children will have a proper space when they move to second level education.