Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I did not interrupt the Minister, please. A total of 56 commitments in the area of education were made in the programme for Government. If this is a new era of honesty, as the Archbishop claimed earlier, why will the Minister not tell us which of the 56 priorities will be shelved? At the moment, the programme is a wish list and does not have any semblance of reality. The Minister is trying to fool teachers, school managers and those interested in education into thinking that he can now achieve all of those promises. What we want from this Government is an honest appraisal of what can be done at this stage.

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