I dealt last week with the impossible housing situation for tens of thousands of young working people. That situation remains the same. The Government has failed disastrously on the critical issue of infrastructure for burgeoning communities. Deputy Cowley and I, representing Independent Deputies, were in Laytown in east Meath this morning where 89 children do not have school places for September. Of the 150 children in west Dublin with no school place for September as of last month, some have now been accommodated and places are being sought for the remainder.

The Taoiseach has allowed developers to erect thousands of houses and apartments but he has not made available and insisted on the necessary accompanying infrastructure, whether social, educational or in terms of transport. This is one of the major downfalls of this Government and one of the major issues on which it will be judged by ordinary working people in the next 12 months. The lives of working people, particularly in the commuter belts, cities and bigger towns, have increasingly become a treadmill in an attempt to survive.

As I related last week, that is a legacy of Fianna Fáil Governments and Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Governments, allowing developers to zoom ahead, with super profits and speculation but not requiring the development of critical infrastructure. It is quite incredible that in a community like Tyrrelstown, with 2,000 homes, or Ongar, also with 2,000 homes, there is not even a community centre where the people can meet. There are also problems regarding education and transport.

These are the crucial issues and if the Government has 12 months left in its term, how will it resolve them?

I wish to correct Deputy Joe Higgins on one point. We are now spending €7.5 billion on education. In his area five new schools were built recently, dealing with the difficulty——

We have had a doubling of the population.

There are five new schools dealing with the issue. We have put enormous investment into the area to which the Deputy refers. The Deputy said there was a problem but it has been resolved. His constituency has more new schools than any other in the country. I accept the population has been growing but people have to live somewhere and I do not think the Deputy has an objection to that. Good quality housing, private and public, is being built in the Deputy's constituency.

Under Transport 21, this year we are spending €1.5 billion on roads. Deputy Joe Higgins's area has done extraordinarily well in terms of a lot of the smaller roads.

People are spending hours in traffic every day.

The position is the same all over the country. In Laytown, where the Deputy was this morning, the number of schools that have been built there is enormous and the school buildings programme——

That is not true.

Under the largest school building programme——

The Taoiseach should ask the former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, where the new school is in Laytown.

Where? There is no new school in Laytown.

We have the largest school building programme in the history of the State——

The pupils had to use the parish house for their classes.

They do not have a new school.

We are spending nearly——

There is no new school there.

When this Government took office in 1997 approximately six school projects were being built per year. Several hundred schools are now being built. The Deputy should come into the real world. We were spending a handful——

The Taoiseach should come into the real world. In the real world there are hundreds of children who cannot find school places for next September.

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

There are not hundreds of children——

The Taoiseach should come into the real world.

Deputy Joe Higgins cannot go five minutes over time with his question and then take up the Taoiseach's time as well.

I spoke for less time than anyone else, but that is okay.

We are spending money on hundreds of projects and an enormous amount in Deputy Joe Higgins's constituency, and he stands up and says that is not the case. On the latest list, five schools have been built. Enormous resources from the €1.5 billion are being put into transport infrastructure. A sum of €500 million is being spent on education. Such spending is reflected in individual schools in individual communities. At a time when the population is growing, our capital and roads programme is far larger than anything that has ever been undertaken in the history of the State. These are the facts.

In Deputy Joe Higgins's area, a new accident and emergency unit has opened in Blanchardstown hospital. There have been enormous increases in the infrastructure and staffing at that hospital. These developments are helping significantly, as is the capital programme in housing and social and affordable housing. All these initiatives by this Government are helping the Deputy's constituents every day.