Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Vice Chairman. I confirm I am in Leinster House. I thank all the witnesses for their contributions for the last hour or so. It has been illuminating. I have a question for Dr. Muldoon and a statement to which I invite contributions. In an ideal scenario we would not have elements of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act that have not been commenced or a budgetary deficit in the provision of services, and Dr. Muldoon touched on this and that prompted my question. The resolution to the hesitancy is not only an issue of planning but an issue of the deficit in responsibility, to which Mr. Harris referred, in terms of the schools and the fact that schools are not centrally managed by the Department of Education, by the State. Is part of the solution to all the issues we have discussed for the last hour the taking over of schools, not in a pejorative sense, by the State?