Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Last week I raised the question of the Minister for Health and Children failing to lay in the Oireachtas Library the direction under the Health Act regarding her hospital building programme but which then appeared on yesterday's Order Paper. This morning there are no fewer than 280 statutory documents on the Order Paper, some of them going back to 1940. Will the Taoiseach give some indication of what is happening? One would not get 280 such instruments following the summer recess. Where did these come from and what is happening? Were they overlooked and not laid before the House at the time?

By the end of every October schools must furnish the figures for classroom sizes to the Department of Education and Science. I have tabled a series of parliamentary questions including some as recently as before the Easter recess. According to the Minister for Education and Science, "the details of the current year are currently being compiled by my Department and the information requested is not readily available". Is the Taoiseach seriously telling the people that——

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