Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a fair few family members in west Cork. Even though Cork is an adjoining county to my own county, I would be in Dublin faster than I would be down to see some of them. The distances are not only great, but they are complicated. I can only imagine what it must be like to be the parent of a young child from Baltimore, Ballydehob, Schull, Goleen, Bantry or any of the places on the Beara Peninsula or the Sheep's Head Peninsula. It must be difficult. A compelling case has been made for the inclusion of geographical impediments. It cannot just be determined on the basis of a population of 210,000 or 147,000. I mean no disrespect to the Senator from County Kildare, but there is no comparison between a population base of 147,000 in County Kildare or County Limerick and a population base of 147,000 in west Cork. I will pass on to the Department of Education the geographical impediments raised by the Senator.