Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

My responsibility as Minister for Education and Science is to ensure there are sufficient places within catchment boundaries to meet the needs of the pupils in that area. It is a general obligation, not a specific one. The irony of the situation in Limerick is that there are sufficient places to cater for the pupils in the area. The reason I intend to call the groups and individuals in Limerick together when the appeals have been completed is to ensure that this will not recur in the future. That is important. However, I do not have directive powers in this regard. What is required is a certain amount of goodwill and that everybody face up to their responsibilities.

I am not commenting on Limerick but, like the Deputy, I do not wish to see educational apartheid in any part of the country. I hope that by working together with the local education interests, local public representatives and so forth we can put in place a system in which everybody will shoulder responsibility and every child will have an equal chance in education, in Limerick city and throughout the country.

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