Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Does the programme for Government stand under the new Minister for Education and Science? Her Department has quite properly in recent years taken sex education seriously but, nonetheless, it appears to be entirely taken aback when three or four years after young couples buy homes in a new housing estate, children appear. Only when the children are four years of age does discussion begin on the need for the provision of a school. For example, where land is designated for a school it has to be purchased at post-rezoning prices. The Government has sought to do nothing about that.

In one case I came across in Kildare a child had to wait until the age of six because there was no place for her in the local school. That is the reality of the figures. If the Taoiseach is now changing the focus to educational disadvantage I entirely agree with him——

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