Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the young people who are in the Gallery and hope they are able to follow what is going on. The Senator is asking me about making sure the Government is providing enough school places for students in Ballinasloe; whether there will be enough places for the students who are coming; and why we cannot build schools faster. I think that is roughly the Senator's question. The Minister, Deputy Foley, cannot be in the Chamber because she is travelling abroad and so I am answering on her behalf. The Senator's specific question, which she feels I did not answer, was when would the school capacity review be completed. I will ask the Department of Education to give me an answer on that. I met with the Minister in the last few days. I will meet with her again and ask her to give the Senator a specific answer on that. The Senator must be heartened by the fact that this school, Scoil an Chroí Naofa, for which the Senator has been looking for so many years, now has planning permission. That is a significant milestone. Many schools around the country have not reached that stage of 2B. The Department of Education has 300 school projects under construction at the moment. This is one area of the capital project that is going well. The Department is spending the money that is being allocated to the projects and is building schools at a rate of knots. I have strong confidence in the Department of Education as to what it is doing. The Department is reporting - and the Senator may feel differently - that there is apparent capacity in primary schools across the Ballinasloe school planning area, however that the primary schools within the town have more limited capacity. Existing capacity at post-primary level is certainly under much more stress than it is at primary level.