David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support what Deputy MacSharry has said. This is a very serious issue. It involves more than 40 schools and it may involve more. We all saw the images of the schoolchildren and their parents locked out of their school yesterday. I imagine temporary arrangements will have to be made which will involve a cost. There will be a cost involved for the taxpayer even in relocating the students. We do not know what remedial works will have to be carried out in all these schools to bring them up to the required standards. There are issues regarding contracts, regulation, enforcement and the other issues that have been raised. Would it be wise for us to request a detailed note from the Department on the number of and nature of the contracts for each of these schools and the number of schools involved? When we request that note, perhaps unfortunately more schools might be added to that list. We need a very detailed note on that. We also need to know the nature of the problems involved. We need as much information as we can get on it for the next meeting and we can determine then how we can map this from this committee's perspective. We should definitely write to the Secretary General of the Department today and get as much information as possible. The big issue is the way it will affect the children concerned, but from our perspective there is the value for money aspect and the additional costs involved, which I imagine is a guaranteed. Unfortunately, there will be an additional cost involved for the taxpayer. We need to understand what happened, why, and what lessons will be learned.