Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a nationwide issue regarding special school places with the Leader. We have a situation in Longford where there are families of young children looking for places in a special school. Unfortunately at this current time, that availability is not there. I call on the NCSE to put in place any measures needed to make sure that we increase the capacity within the special school we have in Longford to ensure children are not going outside their county. That is something none of us want. We want children to be educated in their own communities with their siblings close by. We do not want to have situations where families are having to travel 50 or 60 miles twice a day to bring kids to and from school. I want that capacity to be increased in Longford to make sure that every child from Longford who needs a special school place gets it in the special school in Longford.

I also want to raise another issue that has been brought to our attention. I have had numerous engagements with business people looking at the possibility of building industrial warehouses or expanding their own facilities. We currently do not have an industrial area zoned in Longford. Therefore, we need a sufficient site for whichever company comes in to locate their business . We are still waiting for an IDA advance factory. This has been going on for many years. I would like the Minister for enterprise to update us on where we are in respect of the IDA site. As I said, we have been talking about it for many years and do not seem to be any further on. We need to have land capacity, as well as properly zoned lands available within our county town, for the facilities of any business person who is looking to start a new project.