Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The Minister's reply is a total and utter disgrace and an insult to this House. Her insistence on reading it into the Official Report and taking up my scarce time to block any significant supplementary question is the kind of abuse that I brought to the attention of the Ceann Chomhairle when the Minister was in the House yesterday. I asked the Minister a simple question — if any of the Minister's previous pupils had given the reply that she has given in the junior or leaving certificate, they would have got an F for failure. Is the Minister seriously telling me that the entire Department of Education and Science cannot say how many prefabricated buildings there are in the primary school system, simpliciter? Is it 1,000 or 5,000? There are 3,300 schools — is the figure 10% or 20% and, if so, what age are the buildings? Is the Minister saying the information is not readily available?

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