Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I would not expect her to do it here in a public forum, but when she walks out into the corridor, the Minister might tell her officials to keep their hands off those PE halls and not suggest that they become special classrooms. They are sacrosanct; just keep them for that. If she delivers on this, we will be carrying her out shoulder high out of the room. There will be no one in government or anywhere opposing that kind of funding. We would love to see it happen, so fingers crossed.

I also mention literacy. Children's Books Ireland estimates that school libraries only have a ratio of ten books per pupil at the moment. That is how poor it has gone. These are not the core books in the school. This is reading for fun, developing imagination and developing literacy. Will she please, in the lifetime of this Government, secure more funding for that? It would be transformative. Teachers can lead on numeracy. They have to stand at the chalk board and go through arithmetic and explain it, but literacy happens in one's mind. The more skills that are unlocked, the more children enjoy reading and their literacy levels go through the roof. That is borne out in the Drumcondra test and the MICRA-T test. It is about having colourful books that bring imagination to life but also speak to modern contexts about how families are constituted, Travellers and people from other countries. A variety of books are needed behind that to grab people's interest. Maybe the Minister could also champion that and I thank her for everything.