Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. When I was the Minister for Education and Skills, although we included retrofit energy as a big part of the ten-year plan, I also had to say most days that getting bums on seats was my top priority and that I had to cater for 20,000 more pupils than in the previous year. One of the messages Robert Watt is signalling is that this must change and that there must be a reappraisal of the priorities in big spending Departments such as the Department of Education and Skills. If I was there now I would be expecting whoever was in this seat to be forcing that agenda on me. Hopefully, with support across the Government, we can get changes in the type of attitude the Deputy has described. I do not know enough about boilers in schools to give the Deputy a detailed answer but he is correct that some of these attitudes must change. We must find ways of doing that.