Mark Wall
Kildare South · Labour Party · Ireland
“I understand that the Electoral Commission is undertaking research on this, but we really need to see changes in our voting system to ensure that everyone can take part on voting day.”
“We are seeing lower turnouts in our elections and extending postal votes to a wider range of people would be one measure that could help us all address this issue. I appreciate that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage may be waiting on the research to be received from the Electoral Commission on postal voting.”
“The Minister is 100% correct that we all want to see recruitment to our Defence Forces continue. However the figures she has given far from the 11,500 sought by the Commission on the Defence Forces by 2028. The Minister mentioned 850 a year. Is that the height of the ambition? It is not going to take us near 11,500.”
“They cannot engage in the democratic process like every other ordinary citizen because they work 24-7, 365 days a year, with no break. This Bill is a small but necessary step to ensure that family carers feel that they can use their voice by voting.”
“There is no single issue here. This is about housing, pensions, pay and conditions. Has the Minister dealt though with the representative organisations on the single public service pension scheme? She might confirm that and let us know whether there is any update.”
“I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to entitle certain persons caring for others to be entered in the register of postal voters, for that purpose to amend the Electoral Act 1992, and to provide for related matters.”
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“However, these cards have no legal standing in Ireland. This is in contrast to places like California and Texas, where there are laws providing people with certain medical conditions access to a staff toilet when they need it most. The lack of legislation in Ireland places many people living with Crohn's disease and other conditions in social isolation. My Bill aims to offer a compassionate and practical solution to this by placing no wait cards on a statutory footing, ensuring that, where there are no public toilets available, shops and businesses with a staff toilet will make it available to a person with a medical condition who is in urgent need. The Bill also addresses previous concerns from businesses regarding liability under section 3 of the Occupiers' Liability Act 1995 by excluding businesses under section 5 of that Act.”
“I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to entitle customers with certain medical conditions to make use of staff toilet facilities in retail establishments in certain circumstances, to provide for redress where the entitlement is not met, and to provide for connected matters. I am delighted to introduce the Equal Status (Access to Toilet Facilities) Bill 2026 to the House today. Some people simply cannot wait until they get home to use toilet facilities. This is particularly true for those who live with chronic and invisible health conditions such as Crohn's disease or bladder conditions. Organisations like Crohn's and Colitis Ireland and Spinal Injuries Ireland offer "no wait" cards. These aim to empower individuals to request access to toilet facilities when they are in urgent need.”
“I wish to raise again the carparks that many of our motorways have become as they approach Dublin. Specifically today, I raise the urgent need to provide park and ride and secure park-and-share facilities at strategic points along these motorways. On my way in to Dublin this morning I counted 15 cars parked at the hard shoulder at the Ballitore M9 junction. These motorists are car-pooling and reducing the number of cars on these motorways. The same is happening at the Castledermot junction and, I am told, at other locations along the motorways. What plans does the Government have to provide park-and-ride facilities along these motorways? These cars parking on the hard shoulders are subject to damage and they need secure parking.”
“So many of the family resource centres are up against it and on the coalface of so many community and social issues at the moment. I highlight the need for multiannual funding to ensure that our family resource services can survive and grow. That is the whole issue we are trying to highlight today.”
“I appreciate that. I am highlighting this today because I have been speaking to a number of family resource centres. The number of referrals they are getting is causing complications for the services they are offering. I am highlighting this today to make the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, aware of the need for additional resources in our family resource centres. They have now come to a situation where there is an overload on what they can provide. The other point is the multiannual funding. They need to know what counsellors and therapists they can actually provide for the communities they work in. This is the issue that many of them have raised with me. Again I wish to put on the record that every euro spent is a very welcome euro for the communities they serve.”
“Will she give multi-annual funding to our family resource centres to ensure they can cope with the additional demand they are facing at the moment? It is quite traumatic for them to have to turn people away from the doors when they are getting referrals. That is the unfortunate consequence of not having the multi-annual funding that should be available for them. That is the basis of my question, that is, the number of referrals they are getting from Government and non-Government organisations. Maybe the Minister can comment on that.”
“I thank the Minister for her reply. We can all agree, as we have done previously, that great work is being done by all the family resource centres. The Minister has, in fairness, expanded and created a number of new centres. The problem I am hearing is that the references and referrals coming from many organisations, such as Tusla, the HSE, CAMHS and local authorities, are overloading family resource centres and they are having great difficulty in meeting the demand that is there. We all know the benefits of play therapy and other counselling services. Is the Minister aware of all the referrals that are coming from the various organisations? Are they included in the figures she has just given the Dáil?”
“It needs it for the children who need the unit and it needs it for the school community. It will develop as a school. It is an absolutely brilliant school. If we are serious about treating all children equally, we must give children the opportunity to take part in their own local school and as the parents have said to me, have pride in their local school uniform.”
“The reason why it is so important that we keep children in their local school is because many of them are getting into a taxi early in the morning - 7 a.m. in some cases - and travelling 30 or 40 miles to get that special school place. I have spoken in this House previously about one parent who has had to ring over 40 different schools to get that school place. That is quite common in County Kildare given the demand for school places. Here we have a perfectly good school that has a great reputation. It is a rural school that has the accommodation and, most importantly, a staff member who can come into this unit straightaway in September 2026. I ask the Minister of State to bring this matter back. She has heard the testimonials tonight from parents. The school needs that ASD unit.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive reply. We can both agree about the importance of allowing children to attend their local national school where possible. This is why I raised the needs of Scoil Bhríde in Lackagh tonight. This is a rural school that, unfortunately, has seen something of a decline in numbers but has a need for a special unit. All of us in this Chamber have spoken for a long period of time about the importance of keeping rural schools open. If we can publish that Scoil Bhríde has this unit, I have no doubt we will see the 30 children the school has increase. My office is inundated, as are I am sure the Minister of State's office and those of all Deputies, with parents looking for that special school place or that special school.”
“Implementing this class would not only benefit my child by offering him the appropriate setting for success but would also ensure that the school is meeting the diverse needs of all its students. Finally, My daughter is currently in Lackagh. Her teachers and I have come to the realisation that although she is doing great now, she will most likely need a special class as she goes into older classes. She absolutely loves going into school in Lackagh and we would be heartbroken to have to move her from her friends and teachers if Lackagh doesn’t get the special class they so... [deserve]. Tonight, I am asking the Minister of State to give these parents and their children the ASD unit that Scoil Bhríde so desperately needs. I hope the Minister will have a positive answer.”
“Our lovely local school Lackagh is due to lose a teacher in Sept 26 due to falling enrolment, therefore we have the space and the teacher available. All we want for Xmas this year is for a school place for [our child] in... his local school. He deserves the same opportunities his siblings had and wear the Lackagh uniform with pride. Please give us that chance. Another parent said: My son is 9 years old and is currently facing significant challenges in the standard classroom environment due to his autism. A specialized class would provide the necessary resources, structure, and tailored educational approach to help him thrive academically and socially.”
“The school just needs the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and the Department to give the go-ahead and give parents the certainty of an appropriate classroom environment for their child. We just cannot continue the practice of taxiing children out of their local community when there is a local school like Scoil Bhríde in Lackagh available to them within their own local area. Scoil Bhríde can accommodate this unit as it has the space and, as I said, it has the staff member. As always, I want to put on the record of the House some testimonials I have received from parents seeking this ASD unit. The first one states: Our youngest boy is autistic and requires an autism class. His siblings have all attended our local school in Lackagh.”
“I want to talk the Minister of State about Scoil Bhríde, Lackagh, south Kildare. This is a beautiful rural school that currently has 101 students enrolled. The school, I am told, has 30 new children applying to the school in September 2026. Parents in Scoil Bhríde are currently fighting for an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit. There are a number of children who are struggling in mainstream classes in the school and who would benefit greatly from this new unit. Another child is also due to start in September of next year as their siblings are also currently going through the school. There is an empty classroom in the school and a teacher available.”
“Can the Taoiseach say if officials from the Department of Defence, who are responsible for the site, and the Department of Education and Youth can immediately call to the school to address the serious issues that are ongoing at the school?”
“I wish to raise with the Taoiseach conditions at Curragh Community College, which is based on Department of Defence lands on the Curragh, County Kildare. The school is crumbling around staff and students, presenting immediate and serious safety concerns. Classroom conditions are dire. Radiators are not working and children are learning in extremely cold environments where there are even broken windows. There is no safe pedestrian crossing for children and there was a recent accident involving a car and a child. Staff facilities are wholly inadequate and present ongoing physical hazards under workplace safety regulations. We all know a new school has been promised for Magee Barracks in Kildare town, which will replace this school, but that is a number of years away.”
“Before I call on Deputy Connolly, I welcome to the Public Gallery the pupils from Kilberry National School in Athy. They are from our great county of Kildare. They are very welcome and I hope they enjoy their day.”
“I raise with the Taoiseach DART+ South West, which is now facing a four-year delay until 2030. I have been raising in this House the car parks that the M7, N7 and M50 have become. My concern is that the shelving of this project will have a knock-on effect on providing additional public transport, which we all support, on the Waterford-Heuston line, and to other towns in south Kildare, like Athy and Monasterevin, and, as a knock-on effect of that, to towns like Portlaoise and Carlow. Can the Taoiseach confirm that the delay in DART+ South West will not have a knock-on effect on the provision of additional carriages on those lines because so many people are commuting and stuck in that traffic? I would appreciate if the Taoiseach could confirm that there will be no delay in providing additional carriages on those lines.”
“Vital services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, must be properly resourced. Children must have access to special schools and school places in their local area. Most importantly, the Government must give certainty to families on when their child can access an assessment and the services they need, so that the constant battle can finally stop, once and for all.”
“If it is not the therapies, it is a school place or a bus place. These families have to fight tooth and nail for something that is an automatic right for every other children in this State. For those with additional needs, it is always a fight. I will tell the Minister one thing. These families are not going anywhere. They will fight and fight until Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael finally get their act together and start delivering for children with additional needs. The Government must give a clear commitment to families on when it plans to comply with its legal obligations to the assessment-of-need process under the Disability Act 2005. It must have a clear and immediate action plan that gets to grips with the growing waiting lists. The workforce challenges must be addressed.”
“It is heartbreaking to listen to these families. Children are pulling their hair out, not socialising with children of similar ages, sitting by themselves in school playgrounds, not sleeping at night, not able to clean themselves after they go to the toilet, yet they are still being turned down for this payment because they do not have an assessment of need. That is wrong. The day-to-day diary is gut-wrenching and emotional. I only hope that this latest attempt by the Government will speed up assessment to prevent these families from feeling that nobody is listening to them and the Government simply does not care. It seems like every day is a fight for these families. Every day they have to fight for various services for their child. If it is not an assessment, it is the therapies.”
“Why do we have to wait until 2027 for this to happen? Why can those parents contacting me and so many of my colleagues not get the relief this will provide in September 2026? This week alone, I have been dealing with three families who have had their applications for domiciliary care allowance turned down. In all cases, they are waiting on an assessment of need. I contend that this is one of the main reasons these families are being turned down. I am sure the Minister, like me, sits down and goes through a heartbreaking day-to-day diary with such families to enable them to appeal or request a review of such decisions. They depend on private assessments to get their applications for domiciliary care allowance over the line. Many simply cannot afford to do so. I contend that without the assessment of need, they are being turned down.”
“I am dealing with a lot of parents who are completely stressed by the need to have a diagnosis by 1 October each year to enable them to make an application for a special class or special school. In many cases, the paperwork needed seems to be never-ending for these families. Letters and parliamentary question replies I have received from the NCSE tell parents the State is aware of their child's needs for a place and that the NCSE will work with them to secure such a place. Parents are naturally worried, concerned and confused. With this in mind, I welcome the news tonight that the Department of Education and Youth will remove the requirement to have a diagnosis for a child to be enrolled in a special class or special school. It is a positive announcement, but a question remains, and perhaps the Minister can clear it up tonight.”
“I plead with the Minister to engage with Karen Leigh and her board to bring this potential solution for so many families to reality. I welcome the continuation of the waiting list initiative into 2026. This is a commitment the Labour Party received in this House a number of years ago and one for which I know Cara Darmody has fought since she began her campaign. This will help those waiting the longest to finally access an assessment. Hopefully, a young child from my home town of Athy who was 12 the last got an assessment will be one of them. His needs now are those of an adult as he is now 23 years of age. Up to last week, he had not received any services. We must remember that there is always another child waiting to be seen and, as the Minister said, behind every number is a child waiting.”
“At this stage in the discussion, I want to highlight the national child development centre which was to be developed in Kildare town by Sensational Kids. As the Minister will be aware, this centre, built to roof level in the town, had to stop because of funding. It would have provided 300 children every week with life-changing therapies, reduced waiting times for families with nowhere else to turn and allowed children to reach their full potential. It would have helped the State further reduce the waiting times for assessment of need and, vitally, train many of the therapists that we need to fill the roles I mentioned. I ask the Minister to talk to the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, about this important matter. Solutions to assist in this crisis can be found in this new development in my county.”
“Only today, the Government rushed to publish a press release that says it will deliver targeted reforms which the Minister says will result in a faster and more efficient assessment of need. I honestly hope that for the potential 25,000 families this will be the case but I cannot help but think this is the Government making policy on the hop, not really knowing how to get to grips with this crisis and hoping for more time. The Minister said there will be 11 new teams, made up of different therapists. I am not sure if she is aware, but we can barely staff the current CDNTs throughout the country. Will she outline how she intends to recruit these new staff? Where will these new teams be based? Looking at the current staffing figures, there is an 18% vacancy rate, with 445 unfilled roles, across the CDNTs.”
“We are all aware of the need for early intervention for these children but the reality for children in my county of Kildare is that there are nearly 1,500 of them waiting for occupational therapy while close to 1,600 are waiting for speech and language therapy. Families are simply finding themselves with no help and no direction for their children. Parents are now taking things into their own hands by forking out thousands of euro on services that should be delivered by the State. Families are eating into their savings and borrowing from their families, friends and the local credit union, just to get their child the best start in life. I know this because these families are in my office every day of the week, asking me what they have to do for the State to help them and their child.”
“Most recent figures show that nearly 18,000 children are now overdue an assessment of need while the HSE is projecting the waiting list for an assessment will grow to over 25,000 by the end of the year. As my colleague from Kildare South said, figures for Kildare-Wicklow show that there were 1,692 children overdue an assessment in the first quarter of 2025. This has now increased to 1,828 children in quarter 2. Over 90% of the children in Kildare and West Wicklow are overdue an assessment by three months or more, far greater than the national waiting list of 85% waiting three months or more. Even if a child gets the assessment of need completed, it basically is not worth the paper it is written on because so many are still waiting to receive the vital therapies the assessment recommended for them and their families.”
“She has worked tirelessly to turn her own family's circumstances into a national campaign that has already helped so many families and I have no doubt, having met Cara and her father Mark, will help many more families into the future. It was quite damning that in the past few weeks, the now Minister for Education and Youth described the assessment of need process as no longer fit for purpose. That is something that I and many people in the Labour Party, along with Cara and so many other campaigners, have been highlighting to the Government for a long time now. The Minister unfortunately made these remarks without offering any alternative to reform the process. This followed a statement earlier this year from the HSE that it had not a hope of complying with the assessment of need law.”
“This is a very important moment for this House. It is not every day we see all Opposition parties co-sign a motion and I thank Sinn Féin for using its time tonight to bring this forward. It is such an important conversation we will have here tonight. I am pleased to speak to this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. It is a motion which calls out Government failure to get to grips with the assessment of need process and puts forward a number of solutions. I hope the Government will listen tonight and work with the Opposition as well as with all of the parties in government to get solutions once and for all. I also will take the opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing campaign and great work of Cara Darmody, who I and my party have engaged with over a long period. Cara is representing so many families with her continued campaign.”
“They have benefited so many people, whether it is the house alarm or the additional light outside the door so they can see who is out there. The scheme really has been beneficial. Indeed, it has been life-saving for many people. Given the open mind that the Government has, I hope it can look at other schemes and other areas to ensure that older people have the quality of life they deserve, and that they all should have in their golden years.”
“I totally agree. This has been a great scheme. I thank the Government for the allocations to date. When I was a councillor in Kildare, we looked at other schemes. One of those was a public light or a light outside the door for people in rural areas, and we gave some funding from the LPT towards that. It was very beneficial. That is the type of scheme I would like to see included under the seniors alert scheme to ensure that older people, particularly in rural but also in urban areas, have that bit of security, whether it is a light, an alarm or assistive technology. We should keep our minds open, as the Minister of State said. Many schemes are being administered by local authorities, including in Kildare.”
“An important aspect of the scheme is the house alarm, which would give people security. The pendant is great, but it is about deterring those who might want to enter a house for illegal activity. A house alarm would benefit many people, particularly in rural areas.”
“I thank the Minister of State very much for his reply. We are all aware of the importance of the seniors alert scheme. It has been a life-saving scheme for many people, not just in rural communities but also in urban areas. I am glad to hear that so many people have taken it up since it was launched in 2015, and that the Department is launching a new scheme in 2026. In launching the new scheme in 2026, has the Department looked at those technologies we were asking about? The Minister of State mentioned weather alerts and so on. Unfortunately, much of that is dependent on electricity, and there have been outages. For older people in particular, when there is an outage and the electricity is gone, they have no contact with the outside world. That is where modern technologies need to play their part.”
“Given the importance of the seniors alert scheme to so many people, will the Minister of State confirm whether budget 2026 has allocated any additional funding to it, and if so, whether that includes an expanded list of equipment, such as assistive technology?”
“At the very core of this motion is the need to provide safe and effective healthcare services that are patient informed. Many in the trans community do not feel listened to by the Government and they certainly do not feel listened to by the NGS. We need to have a new approach to health that is patient informed, uses the patient experience and is entirely centred on that experience. We need a new model of trans healthcare that is designed not just for the community, but for the members of the trans community and their families. We must stand with the trans community today and every day, as they have stood with us on many societally defining moments in the past, like the repeal of the eighth amendment and marriage equality. We must remember that there is no LGB without the T.”
“This is due to a direction from the national gender service, NGS, which we are told is instructing GPs to not carry out blood tests for their trans patients. This is simply discriminatory and will put the trans community at risk. I also want to highlight an issue with the rollout of the free HRT scheme. While this is a great initiative, inequalities have arisen in misunderstandings of the scheme. There seems to be a discrepancy in the scheme as some trans women have reported accessing menopause products while others have not been so lucky. However, those who have accessed these products are now reporting differing accounts, being given free HRT one month and being asked to pay the next. There is no consistency. I ask the Minister for Health to provide some clarity and guidance on this.”
“I start by thanking my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, for bringing forward this important motion on transgender healthcare. Over the last number of months, I have met with a number of transgender groups that are focused on highlighting the issues they are facing in the community regarding access to safe and effective healthcare in Ireland. I thank these groups for their input into the Labour Party motion today. This is about respect. This is about helping people. When I speak with these groups, their basic ask is for access to safe healthcare. Even something as simple as a blood test is out of reach for the trans community. I have had people contact my office over the unfair treatment they face in trying to access a blood test.”
“There is a time and need for proper regulations and guidelines. Each community that has been spoken about during this debate needs a seat at the table. They must be considered first before any wind farm.”
“It is incumbent on us all to find the appropriate mechanism or formula to ensure we can ramp up our onshore capacity in a way that abides by the principles of just transition and does not leave any rural community behind. In his contribution this evening, Deputy Stanley said he was willing to change and extend the Bill and work with the Government. He does not deserve to have the Bill kicked down the road for 12 months. Unfortunately, as has been said by many contributors, having a wind farm on your doorstep is a daily reality for many communities, as developers bring forward wind farm after wind farm without proper regulation or guidelines. Will the Government consider existing proposals for wind farms without first considering the guidelines we all seek this evening? This simply cannot continue.”
“It is important that communities are engaged with in the process and they are brought along in our energy transition. They have to have a seat at the table. We obviously need to have minimum setback distances. Let me be absolutely clear about this - we also desperately need to update the guidelines on wind turbine development. I encourage the Minister and the Department to engage with Deputy Stanley on the Bill. I will work closely with my Labour Party colleague, Deputy Ciarán Ahern, who is our climate and energy spokesperson and a member of the climate committee. Crucially, and what is the heart of the Bill, is that the Department and other relevant authorities must engage with communities that host or will potentially host wind farms.”
“I have attended so many of these community consultations over the years, and when I left, the box was ticked. Similarly, I welcome the provisions on community ownership or shared benefit structures. Where renewable projects make tangible contributions to local development, be it through funding amenities, supporting co-operatives or offering community shares as the Bill states, it strengthens the local social licence for a renewable strategy. The Bill also deals with the element that has caused so many communities over the years to struggle, namely, the setback distances. This issue is about finding the balance and bringing the communities with us. I commend Deputy Stanley for putting this issue on the agenda. He has been talking about the need for this Bill for years.”
“They have done their bit for Bord na Móna and the whole rural economy over the years but they have seen very little payback from the just transition fund. We are here tonight and the Government obviously recognises the need to update guidance, given that we have had draft proposals sitting idle since 2019. Assuming we are all in agreement on this need, we must ensure that community concerns are heard and addressed. Deputy Stanley has provided a great framework for community consultation, including early structured engagement. It is a very sensible approach. Developers cannot be allowed to treat community engagement as simply a box-ticking exercise, as many of them do at the moment. In many cases, it is a polite announcement of what has already been decided. Communities deserve to be treated as partners and not as obstacles.”
“For decades, members of the Kilberry community have worked in the local Bord na Móna facility, which is now closed, unfortunately, and is to be replaced, be it in part, by a wind farm. There are many genuine concerns about this proposed facility, and the community deserve to be heard and listened to. Likewise, my colleague in County Louth, Deputy Nash, has spoken to me about the widely held concerns in his community over the planned Kellystown wind farm. For years now, he, like me, has been pressing successive Ministers to update and modernise the setback guidance. Many of these rural villages have gotten little support from the just transition fund. That is very important to state tonight.”
“Equally, and most importantly, is the fact that communities are brought along with us and, in the context of this Bill, those communities that are playing host to these onshore wind farms. A basic principle cleared up on just transition is that climate action is something that should be done with people rather than to people. It is important that community voices are heard and that their genuine concerns are addressed. Over the past number of weeks, I have had a number of people and groups getting in touch with me in anticipation of this Bill. They told me about issues affecting them, be it noise pollution, shadow flicker, biodiversity effects and so on. I know exactly the impact that is having. I have been working closely with the community of Kilberry next door to where I live just outside my hometown of Athy.”
“I thank Deputy Stanley for bringing forward this Bill and giving us the chance and opportunity tonight to discuss the wind turbine regulations. There is obviously an urgent need to update these regulations. At present, as has been said numerous times tonight, we are operating off guidelines set in 2006, and things have definitely moved on considerably since then. There have been significant advances in technology and so on, but also in the urgency with which we need to decarbonise and transition towards clean renewable energy. That has become a far greater need for the planet on which we live. Put simply, we need to generate a hell of a lot more renewable energy than we do at present, and wind is probably one of the best resources in that regard.”
“In light of that, will the Minster of State bring back to the Minister the request to allow the provision of this prefabricated building in order to ensure that those who need school places will have them and that the stress of family life will not come down to the fact there are no school places for many families in the Allenwood area?”
“Children are in GAA clubs. There are excellent ones in Allenwood and the surrounding district. The children speak to one another. One child says they are starting in September and the other, as I have stated in this House on other occasions, says they are not. That causes a serious problem for families. The statistics I have, which were provided by the school management, tell me the school averaged 40 applications for primary school places per year for the past four years. That is not a downward trend. We all welcome the fact that a new school building is on the way, but that will take a number of years.”
“I am sure the Department is receiving emails, because I have seen it copied on the emails I am getting from stressed parents and the school management . The latter does not know where to turn next because it is also getting the calls from parents who do not know where their children will go to school next September. Will the Minister of State bring my request back to the Minister for Education and Youth? I intend to follow up on this matter again - as I am sure, will every public representative in Kildare - namely that the prefabricated building requested, which the Minister of State said is under consideration, be allocated to Scoil Mhuire in Allenwood. We cannot have the number of children involved not having school places in September. As stated previously, families meet up with other families whose children have school places.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply, with which I do not agree and with which the school management will not agree. I have talked in the Chamber previously about schools in south Kildare. As we know, it is one of the fastest growing areas in the whole country. Sometimes, I wonder what statistics and census the Department is looking at. I have just told the Minister of State what has happened in Allenwood over the past four to five years. There have been 40 applications for school places each of the past four years. That is the difference when it comes to what is happening in Allenwood where the population has increased to the extent it has. It is not a downward trend; it is an upward one.”