Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

This is a priority for the Green Party but is clearly not one for the Government. The Government wrote in the programme for Government that it would ensure average class sizes for children under nine would be below 20:1 by the time it left office. It will not do that. I suppose that is the best we can hope for in the way of a straight answer.

Disadvantaged children also suffer. The Taoiseach cannot hide behind them as a reason for his failure here. They get one to one attention for half an hour and are then abandoned back into a class.

See this speech in context