Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

——and to enable conservation measures to be implemented to deal with these issues and particularly to conserve our water, with which everyone in the House yesterday was in agreement, the Government is considering the length of a transition period. The length of that period has not yet been decided. While it can be up to the end of 2009, the Government must decide on its length. As I noted yesterday, schools should monitor water usage and institute repairs and conservation measures during this period. There already is support for so doing. The Government also has sought advice from the Attorney General's office regarding the long-term options.

I refer to Deputy Kenny's question regarding the payment to schools of flat rate charges. This would be proportionate to school size as happens at present. I examined the schedule of local authority charges on Monday or yesterday morning. While such local authority charges differ nationwide, school size is what is used.

I refer to the intentions of the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Education and Science. There are a number of issues, some of which were raised in the meeting yesterday of the Joint Committee on Education and Science. Some were raised by the Minister and others have been sent in from schools in recent weeks. The Government's intention is to draw up a single comprehensive statement and release it after Christmas. The schools will not return until 7 January.

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