Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

No. I fundamentally disagree with the proposal. The last thing we need is another 26 structures for education with administrative boards which would link into other administrative boards and to try to link agencies together. This would tie people up in knots going from one meeting to another. It would not serve any purpose whatsoever. It was part of a proposal made in 1995 or 1996 in a White Paper on education. Fianna Fáil fundamentally opposed it at that stage. It is crucially important that we are able to maintain quality at all levels, in addition to budgetary control, and to ensure there is equity in the service. I have no proposals to set up more administrative structures.

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