Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

——a reduction in front-line staff, in services to our children and in the opportunities this State owes to them. After almost 11 years in office, the Government has wasted the opportunity that the Celtic tiger economy presented for education. Approximately one in four primary school classes now have 30 children or more, which means that 104,000 children are in oversized classes. No progress will be made on this in the coming years. Promises made in 2002 and 2007 about reducing class size have been set aside in a most cynical fashion.

As the Minister has admitted, over 900 schools depend upon prefabricated and temporary accommodation and approximately €35 million is wasted every year on the rental of such accommodation. That is another black mark against this Government and the Minister in failing to provide decent accommodation for our children. A total of 25% of all schools in the country have building projects before the Department. However, as the Minister informed the Dáil yesterday and today, there is not a chance in hell of those projects being advanced because we will see a major drying up of capital resources next year and beyond. This means that some of the worst examples in terms of accommodation will be left hanging on a list with nowhere to go.

I am most disappointed that Archbishop Ryan did not stay in the Chamber to hear about the commitment that was given under the national development plan that €252 million would be spent on improving technology in our schools. Not one brass farthing has been spent in the past four years and we are at rock bottom of the EU league table when it comes to spending on technology. When will we get this money? When will the Minister for Education and Science produce his report on information and communications technology, about which he gave me a commitment two weeks ago? When will the report be produced and when will the money follow from it?

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