Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I first asked the Department about these lay-offs in February. When the then Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, was leaving Marlborough Street by the back door on 6 May, she gave me the list which contained 40 schools which would lose 42 teachers. When those schools were contacted independently, only 28 had been informed. Either I was deliberately misinformed by the Department or another 12 schools have yet to be informed by the Department which got information about these schools on 30 September last year. This is how incompetent the Minister and his Department are. It is a Department not fit for purpose as Deputy Ruairí Quinn said earlier.

The Minister has the brass neck to tell the House of the number of children in classes over 30 pupils but he is still fiddling around with the figures.

See this speech in context