Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 613: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will apologise for her Department's slow response to educational need in rapidly growing areas of east Meath, such as Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington; the meaning of her comments on the radio that parents were the cause of the problem; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34325/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The problem in Laytown was not caused by the lack of planning for school provision as evidenced by the fact that a new school received recognition last year nor was it caused by the lack of an appropriately zoned site as evidenced by the Local Area Development Plan.

The problem was created, on the one hand, by objections emanating from the community to planning permission to effect the short term accommodation solution which would allow its children to commence school this year and, on the other hand, by the site for a permanent structure not being made available to the Patron for this purpose.

If neither of these scenarios arose, the normal procedures would have allowed the short term solution to have been in place at the commencement of the new school year and the long term solution to be working its way towards delivery.

In the space of two weeks after site acquisition being handed over to it by the Patron, the Department acquired the site for a new primary school and it has already appointed a Project Manager to oversee this project in conjunction with the development of the existing senior school up to 24 classrooms and the provision of a new post-primary school. The target delivery date for the new primary school is September 2008.