Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Okay, I wish to ask a couple of questions myself. As regards fee-paying schools, our committee is looking at the Finnish education system. By law, schools in Finland - including private schools - cannot charge fees. That is an interesting system. They do have private schools in the Finnish system but they are not allowed to charge fees, so they must find extra funds elsewhere. In addition, they are not allowed to circumvent the rules. Apparently, there have been legal cases about that.

People say it will cost the State money to bring schools into the non-fee paying sector. Recently a school in Kilkenny, and other schools, have moved into the non-fee paying sector, so I wonder how much that cost the State. Is there any figure on it?

Many schools lament the fact that they do not have the summer work scheme any more. They found it was a good scheme whereby they could do bits and pieces. Many schools are not getting their extension for a while so this was one way to cope with refurbishment in the meantime. Does the Minister have any plans to reintroduce that scheme?

If the Minister is thinking about introducing an assets test, would it be done this year or further down the line?