Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All of this is extremely worrying, but the slowness of the Department in coming clean publicly is particularly worrying. This issue has been coming to the boil since 2008 and has featured in the media at various times in the past few years, but the first detailed statement on it from the Department was only issued on 1 September, on foot of which I requested that this meeting take place. I am glad that the Minister is here and has facilitated the meeting. On that date it was made public on etenders.gov.iethat there was a tender for a further report, but the Minister would have been in a position to announce it long before then to the Dáil and the public. The decision was obviously taken long before 1 September, but it was only at the very last possible moment that the information was released to the public. It was also released on a day on which and in a week in which, in educational terms, a lot was going on. Was there an agenda to reduce the impact by making the information public in the first week of the new school year? I am not sure how successful it was, but it does lead on to other issues.

One such issue is the Department's handling of requests in recent years for funding for fire safety works. It refused quite a number of such applications and seemed not to take seriously the concerns of schools when they applied for such funding. The Minister has given figures in that regard and they are extremely worrying. I ask him to explain the position. Is the Department going to look again at decisions where it refused schools money for fire safety upgrades? Will these decisions be looked at again, particularly in the light of what has happened, what the Department is now doing and safety concerns in other areas where people have died?

To move to the other issue I wanted to ask about, I, and I am sure every other Deputy here, have come across other major issues relating to building quality in recent years, including a brand new roof in my constituency which does not keep water out. That is obviously not a fire safety issue, but is the Department in general very worried about building standards and is it looking at them closely or are we simply happy to see the bright shiny building built? Of course we are, but it seems to me that some people think they can get away with shoddy standards in the schools sector. That appears to be happening lately, particularly when the schools are not directly involved themselves. A number of projects have taken place which have been managed separately from the schools. I know there is an efficiency argument for that, but the boards of management are not involved in a hands-on manner, which is leading to problems. Will the Minister comment on that? In general, are building standards an issue for his Department and is it something he is taking a detailed look at? Obviously the most important issue is the safety of our children, the staff who work in schools and the school community. Will the Minister answer the specific questions which I have put?