Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I agree 100% with Deputy Coveney's views. We must maintain, support and encourage those who have made such a significant contribution. They have stated that they are open to change because of their own position and because they want to facilitate diversity. That change must, however, accommodate their ethos and what they have done. Traditionally, they belong to the church and have fought for their ethos but they have never stopped people joining classes in their schools and have accommodated them and made arrangements for religious difference, excluding people from parts of the curriculum while allowing them to attend the schools. That good practice is being used in many schools around the country where we never expected to have multi-denominational schools with people from various religious backgrounds and faith communities. We must build on what we have and keep our religious people involved in the changing structure because they have achieved this over the years.

The former Deputy de Valera, when she was Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, built up significant resources for the unemployed and others and I have been made aware in the past year that much of that resource has been moved to cater for the new Irish, the people who come here. The demand for English language tuition exceeds supply by a fairly high factor and we must improve capacity. We should encourage it and make sure that we have space for it. Given that demand for English language tuition is very high, it is eating into the resources set aside for the long-term unemployed. It now assists the new Irish, which is good, but we must keep the resources there because it is stretching the system.

I do not want to put the Cork-Swansea ferry into a tunnel because it would not float very well. I have seen the state-of-the-art airport in Cork, one of the most modern to be seen anywhere.

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