Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I thank the Minister for her reply, but had I replied similarly to a question she set for me in one of the classes she occupied expertly in Sion Hill, I would have failed. She did not answer a question I asked clearly. She gave the House a wonderful story about construction and all sorts of other things, but it did not address the question. Nor did she answer Deputy Brian Hayes's question. My question related to the Minister's previous misleading reply which read:

To ask the Minister for Education and Science further to her reply to Parliamentary Question No. 158 of 1 November 2007, the reason her Department has sanctioned money to primary schools to rent prefabs as temporary accommodation for a period of three years or less but has no details of the terms of the contract and the rental cost between the school authority and the rental company as she has already indicated the sum involved is €24.5 million; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

That is what I wanted to find out. The rest of the information, for which I thank the Minister, was wonderful but irrelevant to my question. She is deliberately evading parliamentary questions a second time by answering every question that was not asked and refusing to answer the questions asked.

We are discussing Allspace Limited prefabs, which have a guaranteed life expectancy of 30 years and a possible expectancy of up to 50 years. My question asked whether the Minister examines the terms of the contracts, it did not relate to the other wonderful, irrelevant information. I was happy to receive them, but they were not the answer.

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