Every five years we are asked to fill out a census of population form so that the Government can plan for services. We are told that this is the reason people are asked to fill out the census form, which I would encourage everyone to do. However, there is no real evidence that there is a follow through in relation to services. In Kildare there is a real crisis in school places at both primary and secondary level. There are 15 secondary schools in my constituency but 13 of the 15 are completely full. People are getting multiple rejections although I understand that the second round eliminates that and some of it is to do with how the application system works. Can the Taoiseach give a guarantee that every child will get a secondary school place this year in Kildare? I understand there is a particular pinch point but what is the point in filling out a census form if the Department of Education's planning unit does not know how to count?

I can guarantee that. It might not necessarily be their school of first preference but I can guarantee that everyone in Kildare and also in my own constituency of Dublin West, where this also occurs, will receive a secondary school place. That is an absolute commitment and an absolute guarantee. Figures are used from the census and also from child benefit data. When it comes to secondary schools, the number of children enrolled in primary schools determines the need for secondary school places. What we have, though, on a lot of occasions is children's names being put down for multiple schools but schools cannot share that information for data protection reasons. What happens, and it certainly happens in my constituency, is that it appears at the start that there is a huge number of children without school places. Then, when the places are allocated and accepted or not, that number becomes much smaller and very often those children are not actually in the catchment area of the school to which they have applied.

The schools are full.

If it is the case that children are not able to find a place, we will make certain that they get one but we cannot always guarantee that it will be their place of first choice, particularly if the school is not in their catchment area.